Don't you forget about me

As blue as the eyes of the Virgin Mary, the unassuming forget-me-not stars in tales of romance, Remembrance and politics, finds Ian Morton

- Ian Morton

IT was creation time and God assembled all the flowers to give them names. As He completed his task, one little plant piped up, 'Lord, I didn't get a name. Please forget me not!' The Almighty turned back. Then that shall be your name,' He declared and so it has remained.

Legend doesn't stop there. In another version, the Creator was distributing colours to the flowers. The same plant found itself overlooked and whispered a plea, which He naturally heard-but, with sundry hues generously ascribed to others, only a little blue remained on the celestial palette and thus the forget-me-not acquired its pigmentation.

Christian tradition has one more story to tell. Sitting on his mother's lap, the infant Jesus declared that everyone in the future should behold the beauty of her blue eyes, so he touched her eyelids and waved his hand over the ground, and there the forget-me-not flourished.

These charming fantasies have a Germanic root, that culture offering a further version of how the plant got its name. As young lovers were strolling along the banks of the Danube, the girl saw the plant blooming on an islet and asked her lad to swim across to gather her a bunch. On his way back to the bank, he got cramp and, as he was borne away, threw her the flowers with a final plea of 'Vergissmeinnicht'. She wore forget-me-nots in her hair to her dying day and the flower still bears the romantic name in modern German.