Calle de Miosotis

A tiny blue flower lends its name to this street: the miosotis, the one almost everyone knows by its fond nickname, forget-me-not. The learned term comes from the Greek myosōtís, “mouse’s ear,” for the shape of its leaves. The popular name, meanwhile, renders a wish: that whoever wears it not be forgotten. The same idea took hold across half of Europe, from the English forget-me-not to the German Vergissmeinnicht. The street is best understood by looking at its neighbors. This corner of Valdeacederas filled with plant names —⁠Margaritas, Magnolia, Cantueso, Jaramagos⁠— when Madrid absorbed Chamartín de la Rosa in the mid-twentieth century and the tangle of so many duplicated streets had to be sorted out. A paper garden, sown into the map to undo duplicates, where the forget-me-not found its corner.