VERONICA POLITA

Family and Genus:- See- PLANTAGINACEAE/Sect. POCILLA

Common Names:- Grey field speedwell

Synonyms:- None

Meaning:- Veronica (L) For Saint Veronica, who wiped the sweat from Christ's

face.

Polita (L) Elegant, polished.

General description:- Low sprawling, hairy annual.

Stems:-

1) 5-30 cm, procumbent or decumbent, branched at the base.

Leaves:-

1) 5-15 mm, longer than wide, short petiolate, ovate to more or less truncate at the

base, margins crenate or crenate-serrate, mostly alternate but the lowest

opposite.

Flowers:-

1) Solitary in the leaf-axils.

2) Pedicels, 5-15 mm, usually recurved in fruit.

3) Calyx-segments, 3-6 mm, broadly ovate, subobtuse, often overlapping near the

base.

4) Corolla, 3-6 mm diam., blue.

5) Style, c. 1·5 mm, distinctly exceeding the wide sinus.

Fruit:-

1) Capsule, 3-4 x 4-6 mm,

a) lobes 2, parallel and deep, narrow sinus, not or slightly keeled, with crispate

eglandular, hairs.

2) Seeds, c. 1·5 x 1·25 mm, broadly elliptical, concave on one face.

Key features:-

1) Capsule, not or only slightly keeled, with sub-parallel or slightly divergent lobes;

with long glandular hairs and short, crispate eglandular hairs.

2) Corolla, 3-6 mm diam., blue.

3) Calyx-lobes, broadly ovate, often overlapping near base.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Cultivated ground, olive groves, ruderal habitats. 0-800 m. to 1400 m. in

woodland margins.

Distribution:- Throughout Greece. - Probably native to SW Asian, now almost a

cosmopolitan weed. Widespread and common throughout the Mediterranean. Not

too common on Crete mainly confined to the central E & W.

Flowering time:- Mar-May, occasionally later.

Photos by:- Dr. Armin Jagel