Verbena L.
Annual or perennial, taprooted or rhizomatous herbs or subshrubs, unarmed, usually hairy. Lvs usually opposite, rarely in whorls of 3 or alternate, usually toothed or lobed. Infl. usually of 1 or more terminal spikes, these often corymbosely or paniculately arranged; fls sessile or subsessile, usually rather small, bracteate. Calyx tubular, 5-ribbed and unequally 5-toothed, ± accrescent. Corolla salverform; tube straight or curved, usually > calyx; limb 5-lobed and ± 2-lipped, the lobes obtuse or emarginate. Stamens 4, didynamous, included. Style included. Ovary 4-celled; ovules 1 to each cell. Fr. dry, separating into 4 nutlets.
Key
200-250 spp., mostly tropical and subtropical America. Naturalised spp. 5.
There are no reports of the garden verbena, V. hybrida Voss, being wild although it is abundant in cultivation in most parts of N.Z. and plants sometimes grow spontaneously in the immediate vicinity of cultivated plants. This annual or short-lived perennial has a spreading or decumbent habit, the infl. dense and short at flowering but greatly elongating at fruiting, the calyx teeth acute and a corolla which may be most colours except yellow.
