Key to Myosotis
View taxon page for Myosotis
(For a list of species in Myosotis, use the above link.)
Jepson Manual glossary definitions can be seen by moving your cursor over words underlined with dots.
1. Calyx tube hairs appressed 
Parallel or nearly parallel to and often in contact with surface of origin; used to describe the disposition of hairs, leaves, pedicels, etc.
, not hooked at tip
2. Corolla 2–5 mm diam;
calyx tube ± <=
lobes 
1. A major expansion or bulge, such as on the margin of a leaf, sepal, or petal, or on the surface of an ovary. 2. The free tips of otherwise fused structures, such as sepals or petals; larger than teeth.
;
style <
nutlets;
stem often
decumbent 
lying mostly flat on the ground but with tips curving up.
but base not creeping or stolon-like;
annual to short-lived
perennial 
Completing life cycle (germination through death) in more than two years or growing seasons, generally non-woody (at least above ground) to woody; includes perennial herbs as well as subshrubs to trees; the abbreviation 'per' only refers to perennial herb, not to the word 'perennial' alone.
herb ..... M. laxa 2' Corolla 5–10 mm diam; calyx tube >> lobes; style ± >= nutlets; stem base often creeping or stolon-like; perennial herb
..... M. scorpioides 1' Calyx tube hairs at least some
spreading 
Oriented more or less perpendicularly to the axis of attachment; often, more or less horizontal.
, some or all hooked
3' Calyx lobes ± equal; corolla 1–10 mm diam, generally blue, occasionally initially yellow or pink
4' Pedicel in fruit < to << calyx; corolla 1–3 mm diam; annual, occasionally
biennial 5. Flowers ± in upper 1/2 of pl; corolla yellow turning blue; style >= nutlets;
abaxial leaf 
Organ arising from a stem, generally composed of a stalk (petiole) and a flat, expanded, green, photosynthetic area (blade); distinguished from a leaflet by the presence in its axil of a bud, branch, thorn, or flower; sometimes with lateral, basal appendages (stipules); either simple (toothed, lobed, or dissected but not divided into leaflets) or compound (divided into leaflets).
hairs not hooked at tip
..... M. discolor 5' Flowers ± throughout pl; corolla deep blue; style << nutlets; abaxial leaf hairs hooked at tip
..... M. micrantha
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Citation for an individual treatment: [Author of taxon treatment] [year]. [Taxon name] in Jepson Flora Project (eds.) Jepson eFlora, [URL for treatment]. Accessed on .
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