#mouse-ear

Forget-Me-Nots

Mouse-ear {Hieracium pilosella syn. Pilosella officinarum}

Also, Known As:

Felon Herb

Hawkweed

Mouse-ear

Pilosella

Mouse-ear (botanical name Hieracium pilosella) is a perennially plant that grows up to a height of anything between three and 15 inches. Mouse-ear is a creeping herb that usually grows like a carpet on crawling runners, every one of which takes the form of a basal rosette of oval-shaped leaves. Mouse-ear bears green leaves having white…

Common names

Felon Herb

Hawkweed

Mouse-ear

Pilosella

Mouse-ear (botanical nameHieracium pilosella) is a perennially plant that grows up to a height of anything between three and 15 inches. Mouse-ear is a creeping herb that usually grows like a carpet on crawling runners, every one of which takes the form of a basal rosette of oval-shaped leaves. Mouse-ear bears green leaves having white bristles…

Forget-Me-Not, Myosotis

The little forget-me-not was given the formal name Myosotis, "mouse-ear," because of the soft furriness and the shape of the leaf.  The Welsh explain why it is called the forget-me-not.

In one of their caves the fairies placed a pile of gold, and beside it a small blue flower.  Men hastened to the cave and filled their pockets with the glittering metal, scorning the little flower.  But as they were stumbling out, laden with gold, the mountains clashed together and crushed them, while a voice in the flower called out, "You have left the best.  Forget me not!"

The more familiar legend is of two young people strolling beside the Danube.  The girl pitied the fate of a flower she saw floating downstream, and her hero plunged into the swirling water to recover it.  The current was too strong for him; but before it swept him under he managed to throw the flower ashore and cry, "Forget me not!"

And the Rumanians have a legend that explains why the forget-me-not is found the world over:

An angel sat weeping outside the gates of Paradise; he had fallen through his love for an Earth maiden, whom he had first seen sitting beside a stream twining forget-me-nots in her hair.  Good St. Peter, feeling sorry for the weeping angel, told him he might reenter Paradise if the maiden would plant forget-me-nots in every corner of the world.