Family: Boraginaceae Chinese Forget-me-not Cynoglossum amabile Flowering time: A summer-flowering annual or biennial. Not related to the native Forget-me-nots and infrequently recorded as a garden escape, discard or relic of cultivation A cultivated plant with pointed greyish-green leaves and rounded bright-blue flowers. Five seeds form in a ring round the calyx of each flower and have a raised rim with hooked bristles to aid dispersal. Related: Hounds-tongue, Cynoglossum officinale is a much larger native plant with reddish-purple flowers

Chinese Forget-me-not, Cynoglossum amabile
Photographs: Kingston Lacy, Dorset. July 2020