Flora of New Zealand Series

field speedwell

Annual; stems decumbent to erect, hairy, 2-25 cm tall, simple or branched. Lvs sessile or the lower with a petiole to 5 mm long. Lamina 5-12-(20) × 3-12 mm, ovate to suborbicular, hairy, sometimes hairs confined to veins, irregularly serrate or dentate-serrate; base truncate to subcordate; apex obtuse to rounded. Infl. a terminal raceme with fls extending almost to base of plant; bracts > fls, dissimilar to all but uppermost lvs, smaller, lanceolate or elliptic-lanceolate, entire or few-toothed; pedicels < 1 mm long at anthesis, much < bracts. Calyx 3-4 mm long; lobes lanceolate to elliptic, obtuse; hairs simple, sometimes glandular hairs also present. Corolla c. 2 mm diam., blue. Capsule 2.5-3.5 mm wide, 2-lobed, obcordate; nerves inconspicuous; margins ciliate or sometimes glandular-ciliate. Seeds flattened, generally oblong-ellipsoid.

N.; S.; St.: throughout; K., Ch., C.: local.

Temperate Eurasia, N. Africa, Macaronesia 1864

Often very common; open modified habitats such as waste places, roadsides, arable land, short and poor or depleted pastures, lawns, stream beds and cliffs from sea level to c. 1000 m.

FL Jul-Apr.

The record of V. polita for the Owen Range, Bell, C. J. E., New Zealand J. Bot. 11: 100 (1973), is based on a specimen of V. arvensis.