Myosotis secunda Al. Murray, Creeping Forget-me-not
Account Summary
Native, frequent. Oceanic temperate.
1900; Praeger, R.Ll.; bogs SW of Belleek.
May to October.
Growth form, identification and preferred habitats
This is a widespread stoloniferous, mat-forming annual or biennial plant that grows up to 60 cm tall. It possesses a short, scarcely creeping rhizome and decumbent or prostrate stems arise from leaf axils at the base of the plant, the non-flowering ones rooting at the nodes and forming stolons. The dense spreading hairs at the base of the stem distinguish M. secunda from both of the other wetland Myosotis species that occur in Fermanagh (M. scorpioides (Water Forget-me-not) and M. laxa (Tufted Forget-me-not)). M. secunda also differs from M. scorpioides in having leafy inflorescences and longer flower stalks (3-5 times as long as the calyx), and from M. laxa it differs in having larger, emarginated (ie notched) petals (Welch 1967; Garrard & Streeter 1983; Clapham et al. 1997). M. secunda flowers from May to August, the corolla 4-8 mm in diameter, pale blue with a yellow 'eye' around the throat (or entrance) of the flower. Fruiting pedicels up to 10 mm, becoming recurved; nutlets four, blackish-brown, acute, with a rim (Press & Short 1994; Clapham et al. 1997).
M. secunda is a species of wet to moist, moderately acidic to neutral, loamy or peaty soils with some degree of flushing occurring by springs, streams, drains, pools, on heaths, bogs and marshy moorland pastures (Sinker et al. 1985). It usually occurs on poorer, more acid, colder, more exposed upland, calcium-deficient soils and peats (Trueman et al. 1995). While it is chiefly an upland species in B & I, M. secunda can descend to sea-level in more western parts of both islands (Welch 1967).
In moorland situations, M. secunda is tolerant of grazing and trampling, but it is a poor competitor against more vigorous tillering plants including grasses and sedges. The established strategy of M. secunda is categorised as a CR (Competitive Ruderal) (Grime et al. 1988, 2007). Although it has the advantage of stoloniferous vegetative spread, like most other colonising species, for establishment to be successful it really requires the open, well-lit, somewhat disturbed, bare ground, habitat conditions that grazing animals help provide.
Fermanagh occurrence
M. secunda has been recorded in a total of 107 Fermanagh tetrads, representing 20.3% of those in the VC. It is particularly frequent in wet swampy ground around upland lakes, ponds, streams and in flushed areas of moors and bogs in Fermanagh, as is also the case elsewhere in B & I. However, in Fermanagh, Creeping Forget-me-not is by no means confined to higher ground. As the tetrad map indicates, it is widespread and is regularly, although less commonly and much less abundantly found in lowland sites, eg along riverbanks, stream-sides, peaty ditches and marshy pastures throughout the county.
Despite the above, in Fermanagh, M. secunda is by far the least frequently recorded of the three wetland Forget-me-not species and it has the most restricted distribution in the VC, being only locally common. Having said that, M. secunda is the most likely of the three to be found in upland wetland habitats. Like M. laxa it is tolerant of infertile, acidic wetlands and it is sometimes described as a calcifuge species (Flora of Lough Neagh; Trueman et al. 1995). In terms of local records, however, in Fermanagh it has only a third the frequency of M. laxa and it is less than half as widely distributed as it is across the VC. Both these wetland Myosotis species are less than half as frequent in the VC survey as the entirely lowland, more nutrient-demanding M. scorpioides, but M. laxa certainly is the most widespread of the three species.
British and Irish occurrence
Common in many parts of B & I, especially upland areas in the N & W, but rare or absent in most of C & E England, and likewise in lowland C Ireland (D. Welch, in: Preston et al. 2002; Sell & Murrell 2009).
European and world occurrence
M. secunda belongs to the oceanic temperate phytogeographic element and is confined to W Europe, the Azores and Madeira (Clapham et al. 1997; Sell & Murrell 2009).
Names
The Latin specific epithet 'secunda' means 'one sided', probably referring to the coiled cymose inflorescence having all the flowers facing the same way (Gledhill 1985).
Threats
None.