Veronica catenata Pennell
pink water speedwell
Perennial with glabrous vegetative parts; stems at first prostrate but soon ascending to c. 25 cm, sometimes rooting at lower nodes. Lvs sessile, slightly amplexicaul, 1.5-7-(9) × 0.3-2-(2.5) cm, linear to lanceolate, often somewhat puckered, entire or slightly serrulate; apex acute. Infl. consisting of axillary, opposite racemes towards stem apices, > lvs, with many fls on spreading pedicels; peduncles and pedicels glandular-hairy; pedicels 3-5 mm long, soon elongating to exceed bracts at fruiting. Bracts usually linear, > calyx. Calyx 2-4 mm long; lobes oblong or ovate-oblong, glabrous, short-acuminate but blunt at tip. Corolla 5-7 mm diam., pink or pale pinkish, with darker veins. Capsule c. 3 mm wide, suborbicular, slightly wider than long, often ciliate. Seeds ovoid to oblong, convex on 1 side, flat on the other.
S.: Canterbury (mainly in northern areas).
Temperate Eurasia, N. America 1944
Swamps, ditches and riverbeds, usually near the coast.
FL Nov-Mar.
V. catenata is closely related to V. anagallis-aquatica but in N.Z., at least, it is nearly always a much smaller plant with smaller and narrower lvs. Walters, S. M. and Webb, D. A., in Fl. Europ. 3: 248 (1972), contrasted the dark green lvs of V. catenata with the light green lvs of V. anagallis-aquatica but this character is of little value in N.Z. Here, the former is often brownish purple but the latter can have purplish lvs also. V. scutellata also resembles V. catenata but that is a slender, usually single-stemmed plant, with the racemes always alternate, slender and flexuous; in V. catenata the racemes are shorter and appear stiffer and there are usually 2 per node. It was first recorded as V. aquatica.
