''Myosotis goyenii'' 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,

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

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 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 ...

Donald Petrie Donald Mark Petrie (born April 2, 1954) is an American film director and actor. Life and career Petrie was born in New York City, New York, the son of Dorothea (née Grundy), a television producer, actor, and novelist, and Daniel Petrie, a dir ...

described the species in 1891. 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 ...

rosettes which form loose tufts or clumps, with ebracteate, erect inflorescences, and white corollas with partly exserted or fully included stamens.

Taxonomy and etymology

''Myosotis goyenii'' Petrie is in the plant family

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 ...

and was described by

in 1891. ''Myosotis goyenii'' is morphologically similar to other ebracteate-erect species, especially other South Island endemic species ''M. albosericea'', ''M. monroi'' and ''M.'' × ''cinerascens.'' Plants of these species have densely distributed hairs on the rosette leaves that are antrorse (forward-facing), straight, appressed and parallel to the mid vein, short fruiting pedicels, and no retrorse (backward-facing) hairs on the leaves or calyx. ''M. goyenii'' can be distinguished from these species by its longer inflorescences and the glaucous, grey or grey–blue color of most of its vegetative parts. Multiple specimens of original material (

syntypes In biological nomenclature, a syntype is any one of two or more biological types that is listed in a description of a taxon where no holotype was designated. Precise definitions of this and related terms for types have been established as part of ...

) of ''Myosotis goyenii'' were collected in different localities in Otago, New Zealand by Peter Goyen (from Arrowtown) and Donald Petrie (from the Cardrona Valley and Lake Hawea). The

lectotype In biology, a type is a particular specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally attached. In other words, a type is an example that serves to anchor or centralizes the ...

was designated by Carlos Lehnebach, and is lodged at the herbarium of the

Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa is New Zealand's national museum and is located in Wellington. ''Te Papa Tongarewa'' translates literally to "container of treasures" or in full "container of treasured things and people that spring fr ...

(WELT SP002484). Donald Petrie gave this species the specific epithet ''goyenii'' to honor his friend, Peter Goyen (1845–1927), who collected several specimens of it. Like Petrie himself, Goyen was a school inspector and naturalist who lived on the South Island of New Zealand. Two subspecies are recognized: ''Myosotis goyenii'' subsp. ''goyenii'' and ''M. goyenii'' subsp. ''infima''''.'' The subspecies are

allopatric Allopatric speciation () – also referred to as geographic speciation, vicariant speciation, or its earlier name the dumbbell model – is a mode of speciation that occurs when biological populations become geographically isolated from ...

, and can be distinguished from one another based on habit; length of the style, pistil and filaments; and anther exsertion.

Phylogeny

''Myosotis goyenii'' 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 two sequenced individuals of ''M. goyenii'' grouped with each other and with ''M. albosericea'' in the nuclear ribosomal DNA analyses, and with ''M. australis'' and other species in the chloroplast DNA analyses.

Description

''Myosotis goyenii'' plants have long woody taproots or fibrous roots, and are single rosettes that often grow together to form loose clumps or tufts. The rosette leaves have petioles 10–48 mm long. The rosette leaf blades are 7–40 mm long by 3–11 mm wide (length: width ratio 2.2–5.3: 1), usually narrowly oblanceolate, oblanceolate or narrowly obovate, widest at or above the middle (rarely below the middle), with an

acute Acute may refer to: Science and technology * Acute angle ** Acute triangle ** Acute, a leaf shape in the glossary of leaf morphology * Acute (medicine), a disease that it is of short duration and of recent onset. ** Acute toxicity, the adverse eff ...

apex (rarely obtuse). Both surfaces and the edges of the leaf are densely covered in straight, appressed, antrorse (forward-facing) hairs that are oriented parallel to the mid vein. Each rosette has 2–40 erect, usually once-branched (sometimes unbranched), ebracteate

inflorescences An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphology (biology), Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of sperma ...

that are up to 350 mm long and are usually bifurcating in an open, forked 'V' shape near the tips. The cauline leaves are similar to the rosette leaves but smaller with shorter petioles, and decrease in size toward the tip. Each inflorescence has up to 26 flowers, each borne on a

pedicel Pedicle or pedicel may refer to: Human anatomy *Pedicle of vertebral arch, the segment between the transverse process and the vertebral body, and is often used as a radiographic marker and entry point in vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty procedures ...

up to 3 mm long at fruiting, and each without a bract. The calyx is 3–5 mm long at flowering and 4–6 mm long at fruiting, lobed to half to almost all of its length, and densely covered in antrorse, straight to flexuous, appressed to patent hairs. The corolla is white, up to 14 mm in diameter, with a cylindrical tube, petals that are broadly ovate, obovate, broadly obovate or broadly obovate, and small yellow scales alternating with the petals. The anthers are partly exserted above the scales or fully included within the tube. The four smooth, shiny, light to dark brown nutlets are 1.7–2.7 mm long by 1.0–1.3 mm wide and narrowly ovoid in shape. The chromosome number of ''M. goyenii'' is unknown. The pollen of ''M. goyenii'' is unknown. It flowers and fruits from October–June, with the main flowering and fruiting period from January–February.

Distribution and habitat

''Myosotis goyenii'' is a

endemic to two disjunct areas in the South Island, New Zealand, i.e. Marlborough and Canterbury in the north, and Otago and Southland in the south, from 450–1300 m ASL. It is found on steep slopes, rock outcrops and ledges, on schist or limestone substrates.

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, with the qualifier "Sp" (Sparse).

References

External links

''Myosotis goyenii'' occurrence data from Australasian Virtual Herbarium
* {{Taxonbar, from=Q17416554, from2=Q111821569, from3=Q111821876 goyenii Endemic flora of New Zealand Endangered flora of New Zealand Flora of the South Island Plants described in 1891