Myosotis lappula Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 1: 131. 1753; Echinospermum lappula (Linnaeus) Lehmann; Lappula echinata Gilibert.

Herbs annual or biennial. Stems erect, much branched, 30-60 cm tall, densely short white hispid. Basal leaves oblong-spatulate, densely white hirsute, hairs discoid at base, base attenuate to long petiole, to ca. 7 cm × 3-9 mm (including petiole), margin entire, apex obtuse; stem leaves sessile, lanceolate to linear, shorter, narrower, flat or longitudinally flexed along midvein, base attenuate, apex acute. Inflorescences to 17 cm in fruit; bracts linear, slightly longer than fruit. Pedicel erect, ca. 3 mm in fruit, pubescent. Calyx lobes spreading or reflexed, linear, 2-3 mm at anthesis, to 5 mm in fruit, becoming lanceolate, pubescent, apex acute. Corolla light blue, funnelform to campanulate, ca. 4 mm; throat appendages trapeziform; limb 3-4 mm wide; lobes oblong-ovate. Style surpassing nutlets but not apical prickles. Nutlets ovoid, 3-4 mm, adaxially with spiny emergences or tuberculate; disc narrowly ovate to oblong-lanceolate, usually granulose, rarely smooth or keeled, with fine spiny emergences along center line; marginal glochids in 2 rows; inner glochids 1.5-2 mm, separated at base; outer row of glochids slightly shorter, usually erect. Fl. and fr. Jun-Sep. 2n = 48.

The fruit are used as an antiphlogistic and insecticide in Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Ningxia, and Xinjiang.

Hillside meadows. Gansu, Hebei, W Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanxi, Xinjiang [NW Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan; S Africa, SW Asia, C and E Europe, North America]