Verbena brasiliensis Vell.
Perennial; stems erect, square, scabrid, to 2 m tall. Lvs sessile, 5-7 × 1-1.5 cm (probably much larger on vegetative shoots), lanceolate or elliptic-lanceolate, strigose on both sides with bulbous-based hairs above, coarsely serrate; veins impressed; base ± attenuate with no distinct petiole; apex short-acuminate. Infl. much-branched, composed of spikes; spikes closely packed, 1-5 cm long at maximum flowering, not elongating much at fruiting, fairly stout; rachises scabrid; fls dense. Bracts slightly > calyx, linear to lanceolate, acuminate, hairy, ciliate, keeled. Calyx 2-3 mm long, with appressed hairs; teeth subulate, probably purple. Corolla with scattered hairs outside; tube slightly > calyx; limb 2-3 mm diam., mauve or purple, drying deep blue. Nutlets 1-1.5 mm long, oblong-obovoid, white-papillate on flattened ventral surface, wrinkled on dorsal surface, longitudinally ribbed.
N.: Urupukapuka Is (Bay of Islands County); S.: Greymouth.
Tropical America 1949
Kikuyu grassland and in gutters.
V. brasiliensis is closely related to the common V. bonariensis, but the differently shaped lf bases distinguish them. Also the spikes are not as densely clustered nor as stout as in V. bonariensis, although the individual fls of the 2 spp. are indistinguishable.
