Verbena officinalis L.
vervain
Annual or short-lived perennial; stems to 80 cm tall, square, often scabrid on angles. Most lvs variously pinnatifid or pinnatisect (basal ones often deeply toothed), mostly petiolate (uppermost often sessile), sometimes scabrid, with hairs little swollen at base; lamina 3-6 × 1-4 cm, ± rhombic or oblanceolate; lobes oblong or ovate; veins not impressed above; base ± attenuate; apex obtuse to acute. Infl. very loosely paniculate; spikes to c. 15 cm long at maximum flowering, elongating to 25 cm at fruiting, slender, puberulent; fls soon becoming distant. Bracts 1/2-⅔ length of calyx, lanceolate to ovate, somewhat keeled, acuminate, hairy. Calyx 2-3 mm long, hairy; teeth acute, green or mauvish. Corolla tube > calyx, somewhat hairy outside; limb 4-5 mm diam., mauve or lavender, drying a similar colour. Nutlets c. 2 mm long, oblong, reddish brown, strongly ribbed dorsally, finely white-papillate and flattened ventrally.
N.; S.: widespread and common, rarer N. of the Volcanic Plateau.
Europe, N. Africa, W. Asia 1867
Roadsides, stony river banks, street gutters, and other waste and open disturbed places, sometimes open or depleted pastures, up to 900 m.
FL Nov-Mar.
V. officinalis generally tolerates moister situations than the similar V. litoralis. It shows considerable variation in form, some plants having a widespreading habit and almost prostrate panicles as described for var. prostrata Gren. et Godr.. One specimen (CHR 2052, Auckland, Hodgkins) has corollas which were stated by the collector to be nearly double the size of those of ordinary V. officinalis in the locality, thus suggesting var. grandiflora Hausskn. The collector also noted that similar large-flowered plants occasionally grew elsewhere.
