Veronica scutellata L.
marsh speedwell
Glabrous perennial or possibly annual; stems thin, weak, to c. 35 cm long, usually simple, sometimes rooting at nodes. Lvs sessile, 2-6 × 0.1-1.2 cm, usually linear, sometimes linear-lanceolate, remotely serrulate; apex acute or subacute. Racemes axillary, alternate (1 to each opposite pair of lvs), very slender and flexuose; peduncles to c. 12 cm long; pedicels very slender, 5-13 mm long, much > linear bracts. Calyx c. 2 mm long; lobes ovate, ± acute. Corolla c. 6 mm diam.; lobes whitish with bluish veins. Capsule 2-lobed, 3-4.5 mm wide, glabrous, > calyx. Seeds oblong-obovate, very flattened.
N.: Tirau (Thames District), Feilding area (Manawatu); S.: Clarence R. (Marlborough/Canterbury), upper Waimakariri R. (Canterbury), Lake Waihola (near Dunedin), Kumara and Hokitika areas (West Coast).
Temperate Eurasia 1924
Swamps, by streams and lakes, usually amongst taller vegetation.
FL Dec-Apr.
V. scutellata can be easily distinguished from the other wetland spp. in N.Z. by the very slender and lax, few-flowered racemes which are always alternate.
