Alaska’s State Flower
“The blue and bright-eyed floweret of the brook, Hope's gentle gem, the sweet Forget-me-not.” -Samuel Taylor Coleridge
I don’t recall ever seeing the diminutive forget-me-not flower when I was growing up in California. It wasn’t until I moved to Fairbanks in my early twenties that I discovered its charming presence popping up along the borders of my Alaskan grandma’s garden.
When I moved to England, I was delighted to find it cropping up along the edges of my partner’s lawn. (Please don’t mow it down! I’ll re-home it!) As I was struggling to adjust to a new home in a new culture in a new land, the forget-me-nots in the garden seemed to say, “You carry Alaska in your heart and your identity. Forget it not.”
Forget-me-nots are in the borage family; the genus, Myosotis, comes from the ancient Greek for “mouse’s ear.” The leaves are long and slender, unlike small, round mice ears, but they are covered with fuzzy hair.
A forget-me-not’s tiny flowers have five petals surrounding a white star with a yellow throat. The petals of most change from pink to blue as the plant matures.
Before the flowers appear, the plant’s coiled stem looks like a scorpion’s tail which has given it the unappealing name of scorpion grass. The stem uncurls as the flowers bloom.
Forget-me-nots vigorously self-seed and can spread wildly, which I love, but my neat-freak partner does not. (He indulges me.) They are spring flowering, appearing like little harbingers of coming goodness in April and May. Starting as dinky and unobtrusive nosegays, they may grow to be a two-foot by two-foot bush. Sadly, they can become invasive and are considered a noxious weed in the Midwest, one of the U.S. regions where it has naturalized.
^ Not my photo (Wikimedia Commons), but wow!
How did this gentle (invasive) gem get its name? One story is of two lovers living on opposite sides of a powerful river. The young man, compelled by his ardor, jumped in and swam as hard as he could. The current was strong and when he struggled to the other side, he grabbed for some vegetation growing on the bank. It came away in his grasp and as he was swept away clutching a clump of blue flowers, he shouted, “Forget-Me-Not!”
A similar story is set in 15th century Germany where a knight and his lady were walking along the Danube River where the nobleman reached out over the bank to pick some blue flowers for his love. He fell in and as he was swept away, he tossed the flowers to her and cried out, “Forget-Me-Not!” It is said she wore the flowers in her hair until she died. In medieval times, ladies wore these flowers to show their faithfulness and enduring love.
Every flag has a fascinating backstory of origin and symbols.
Thirty-two years before Alaska became a state, the Alaska Department of the American Legion sponsored a territorial contest for Alaskan children to design a flag for the territory. In 1927, the contest committee chose fourteen-year-old Benny Benson's design to represent the future flag of the territory and ultimately, the state of Alaska. In the young Alaska Native’s own words, “The blue field is for the Alaska sky and the alpine forget-me-not, an Alaskan flower. The North Star is for the future state of Alaska, the most northerly in the union. The dipper is for the Great Bear, symbolizing strength.”
When Alaska entered the Union in 1959 as the 49th state, the alpine forget-me-not, Myosotis alpestris, was adopted as the official state flower and floral emblem.
Forget-me-nots were the favorite flower of Princess Diana.
Butterflies and other pollinators love them.
Once, when I was hiking in the English countryside, I came upon a whole field of blue beauties. Unforgettable!
Now that we’ve passed solstice, the length of daylight will start to shorten by one or two minutes each day. But nature’s radiant summer energy continues to build and bring, against all odds, an audacious hope that there are better days ahead.
“There is something inspiring and sublime about the little forget-me-not flower. I hope it will be a symbol of the little things that make life joyful and sweet.” -Dieter F. Uchtdorf
Beautiful ❤️ I didn’t know what a forget me not looked like until just now but I see them lots of places, most recently in my garden after a trip to Rome when the wildflowers settled into the grass…I begged my husband not to mow it but he’s a stickler for a short lawn, though he did let me enjoy watching the bees and the butterflies for a couple of days. Thanks for sharing the history of the Alaskan state flag and how the forget-me-not came to be the state flower, I enjoyed learning something new. I also feel for the lost lovers, whoever they may be!
I love them. My grandmother had some in her garden