VERBENA OFFICINALIS

Family and Genus:- See- VERBENACEAE

Common Names:- Vervain

Homotypic Synonyms:- None

Meaning:- Verbena (L) Sacred-bough, A name used by the Roman naturalist and

philosopher Pliny for vervain.

Officinalis (L) Official medicine, of the apothacaries.

General description:- Medium, rough-hairy perennial.

Stems:-

1) 30-60(100) cm, stiffly erect, quadrangular, longitudinally ribbed, scabrid on the

angles and diffusely branched.

Leaves:-

1) Opposite, more or less rhombic, strigulose.

2) Lower, 4-6 x 2-4 cm, petiolate, deeply incised, lyrate, or 1- to 2- lobed.

a) lobes, pinnatifid.

3) Upper, smaller, sessile and subentire or entire.

Flowers:-

1) Spikes, 10-25 cm in fruit, terminal, long-pedunculate, solitary or in a very lax

panicle.

2) Bracts, ovate to acuminate, ciliate, up to half as long as the calyx.

3) Corolla, pale pink, twice as long as the calyx.

Fruit:-

1) Nutlets, 1·5-2 mm, reddish-brown, with 4 to 5 longitudinal ribs on the back.

Key features:-

1) At least the lower leaves deeply incised to 1- to 2- pinnatisect, petiolate;

2) Spikes, slender, becoming lax.

3) Stem, scabrid on the angles, usually erect;

4) Fruiting spikes, 10-25 cm.

Click here for a glossary of terms used

Habitat:- Damp meadows, along streams and ditches, field margins, ruderal

habitats. 0-1000 m.

Distribution:- Throughout Greece. - Widespread in Europe, the Mediterranean

region and temperate and subtropical Asia; widely naturalised or casual elsewhere.

Somewhat scattered across Crete, not too common because of damp habitat

requirements.

Flowering time:- Apr-June(-Aug).

Photos by:- Steve Lenton