''Myosotis capitata'' is a species of

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...

in the

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

Boraginaceae Boraginaceae, the borage or forget-me-not family, includes about 2,000 species of shrubs, trees and herbs in 146, to 156 genera with a worldwide distribution. The APG IV system from 2016 classifies the Boraginaceae as single family of the order ...

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to the

Campbell Campbell may refer to: People Surname * Campbell (surname), includes a list of people with surname Campbell Given name * Campbell Brown (footballer), an Australian rules footballer * Campbell Brown (journalist) (born 1968), American television ne ...

and

Auckland Islands The Auckland Islands (Māori: ''Motu Maha'' "Many islands" or ''Maungahuka'' "Snowy mountains") are an archipelago of New Zealand, lying south of the South Island. The main Auckland Island, occupying , is surrounded by smaller Adams Island, ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

Joseph Dalton Hooker Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker (30 June 1817 – 10 December 1911) was a British botanist and explorer in the 19th century. He was a founder of geographical botany and Charles Darwin's closest friend. For twenty years he served as director of t ...

described the species in his 19th century work ''

Flora Antarctica The ''Flora Antarctica'', or formally and correctly ''The Botany of the Antarctic Voyage of H.M. Discovery Ships Erebus and Terror in the years 1839–1843, under the Command of Captain Sir James Clark Ross'', is a description of the many plants ...

''. Plants of this species of

forget-me-not ''Myosotis'' ( ) is a genus of flowering plants in the family Boraginaceae. The name comes from the Ancient Greek "mouse's ear", which the foliage is thought to resemble. In the northern hemisphere they are colloquially known as forget-me-nots ...

are

perennial A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the years") is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also wide ...

and erect, and have

ebracteate In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, especially one associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis or cone scale. Bracts are usually different from foliage leaves. They may be smaller, larger, or of ...

inflorescences and blue corollas. It is one of two native species of ''Myosotis'' in the

New Zealand subantarctic islands The New Zealand Subantarctic Islands comprise the five southernmost groups of the New Zealand outlying islands. They are collectively designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Most of the islands lie near the southeast edge of the largely ...

, the other being '' M. antarctica,'' which can also have blue corollas''.''

Taxonomy and etymology

''Myosotis capitata''

Hook.f. Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker (30 June 1817 – 10 December 1911) was a British botanist and explorer in the 19th century. He was a founder of geographical botany and Charles Darwin's closest friend. For twenty years he served as director of ...

is in the plant family

and was described in 1844 by

. After its description, Hooker expanded the

circumscription Circumscription may refer to: *Circumscribed circle *Circumscription (logic) *Circumscription (taxonomy) * Circumscription theory, a theory about the origins of the political state in the history of human evolution proposed by the American anthrop ...

of ''M. capitata'' to include plants from Rakiura / Stewart Island, New Zealand.Hooker JD (1853) �
The Botany of the Antarctic Voyage. II. Flora Novae-Zelandiae.
�� (Reeve: London, UK)Hooker JD (1864) �
Handbook of the New Zealand Flora. Part I.
�� (Reeve:London, UK) Joseph Beattie Armstrong described a new variety, ''M. capitata ''var.'' albiflora'' J.B.Armstr., for the Stewart Island plants and other similar fleshy, white-flowered plants from southern

South Island The South Island, also officially named , is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand in surface area, the other being the smaller but more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman ...

, New Zealand, for which the name '' M. rakiura''

L.B.Moore Lucy Beatrice Moore (14 July 1906 – 9 June 1987) was a New Zealand botanist and ecologist. Biography Early life and education Moore was born in Warkworth, New Zealand, on 14 July 1906, the daughter of Janet Morison and Harry Blomfield Moor ...

is now used. ''Myosotis capitata'' can be distinguished from ''M. rakiura'' in its blue corollas, lack of retrorse trichomes anywhere on the plant, including the underside of the leaves, and partially exserted anthers. The type specimen of ''Myosotis capitata'' is lodged at

Kew Herbarium Kew Gardens is a botanic garden in southwest London that houses the "largest and most diverse botanical and mycological collections in the world". Founded in 1840, from the exotic garden at Kew Park, its living collections include some of the ...

. The specific epithet, ''capitata'', derives from the Latin, ''caput/capitis,'' meaning "head" and hence describes the plant as having its flowers arranged in tightly compacted, head-like inflorescences.

Phylogeny

''Myosotis capitata'' was shown to be a part of the

monophyletic In cladistics for a group of organisms, monophyly is the condition of being a clade—that is, a group of taxa composed only of a common ancestor (or more precisely an ancestral population) and all of its lineal descendants. Monophyletic gro ...

southern hemisphere lineage of ''Myosotis'' in

phylogenetic In biology, phylogenetics (; from Greek φυλή/ φῦλον [] "tribe, clan, race", and wikt:γενετικός, γενετικός [] "origin, source, birth") is the study of the evolutionary history and relationships among or within groups o ...

analyses of standard DNA sequencing markers ( nuclear ribosomal DNA and

chloroplast DNA Chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) is the DNA located in chloroplasts, which are photosynthetic organelles located within the cells of some eukaryotic organisms. Chloroplasts, like other types of plastid, contain a genome separate from that in the cell nu ...

regions). Within the southern hemisphere lineage, species relationships were not well resolved. The sequences of ''M. capitata'' are not that similar to the other native subantarctic species, '' M. antarctica,'' and the sole individual of ''M. capitata'' sampled formed a unique lineage in the chloroplast DNA network.

Description

''Myosotis capitata'' plants are small rosettes that may cluster together into tufts or loose clumps. The rosette leaves have petioles 8–25 mm long. The rosette leaf blades are 13–48 mm long by 4–19 mm wide (length: width ratio 1.5–4.2: 1), elliptic, oblanceolate or narrowly obovate, widest at or above the middle, with an obtuse apex. The upper surface of the leaf is densely covered in long silky forward-facing hairs, while on the lower surface the hairs are shorter, fewer and also forward-facing. Each rosette has 2–7 ascending to erect, branched, ebracteate

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed o ...

s that are up to 37 cm long. The cauline leaves on the lower part of the inflorescence are similar to the rosette leaves, and decrease in size toward the tip. There can be up to 150 flowers condensed near the top of each inflorescence. Although the flowers are borne on short

pedicels In botany, a pedicel is a stem that attaches a single flower to the inflorescence. Such inflorescences are described as ''pedicellate''. Description Pedicel refers to a structure connecting a single flower to its inflorescence. In the absenc ...

, they do not have bracts. The calyx is 2–4 mm long at flowering and 4–6 mm long at fruiting, lobed to half or more of its length, and densely covered in long, forward-facing silky hairs. The corolla is deep blue, up to 10 mm in diameter, with a cylindrical tube, petals that are rounded and flat, and small yellow scales alternating with the petals. The anthers are partly exserted, with the tips only surpassing the scales. The four smooth, shiny, black nutlets are 1.4–2.1 mm long by 1.0–1.7 mm wide and ovoid in shape. The chromosome number of ''M. capitata'' is 2''n'' = 46. It flowers and fruits from November to February.

Distribution and habitat

''Myosotis capitata'' is a

endemic to the Auckland Islands and Campbell Island, New Zealand. On the Auckland Islands, it has been collected on

Auckland Island Auckland Island ( mi, Mauka Huka) is the main island of the eponymous uninhabited archipelago in the Pacific Ocean. It is part of the New Zealand subantarctic area. It is inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage list together with the other New ...

, Adams Island and

Ewing Island Ewing Island is an ice-covered, dome-shaped island in diameter, lying northeast of Cape Collier, off the east coast of Palmer Land. It was discovered from the air on November 7, 1947, by the Ronne Antarctic Research Expedition (RARE), under F ...

. It is found from sea level up to altitudes of 630m, on the shore edge, rocks, bluffs or cliffs in exposed

fellfield A fellfield or fell field comprises the environment of a slope, usually alpine or tundra, where the dynamics of frost (freeze and thaw cycles) and of wind give rise to characteristic plant forms in scree interstices. Soil dynamics The freeze-thaw ...

or banks with sparse vegetation.

Conservation status

The species is listed as "At Risk - Naturally Uncommon" on the most recent assessment (2017-2018) under the New Zealand Threatened Classification system for plants, because of its range which is restricted to certain subantarctic islands.

Gallery

Myosotis capitata (14156894486).jpg Myosotis capitata (13993419358).jpg Myosotis capitata (14200185403).jpg

References

External links

''Myosotis capitata'' occurrence data from Australasian Virtual Herbarium
* {{Taxonbar, from=Q17416580

capitata Capitata is a suborder of Hydrozoa, a class of marine invertebrates belonging to the phylum Cnidaria. Characteristics Members of this suborder are characterised by the tentacles of the polyps terminating in knobs. In some species these are o ...

Endemic flora of New Zealand Endangered flora of New Zealand Taxa named by Joseph Dalton Hooker Plants described in 1844