Verbena bracteata (Bracted Vervain) - photos and description
Plant in early July.
Plant mid-July.
By August, the inflorescence has elongated.
Many plants forming a thick mat
General: Annual plant with a prostrate, much branched growth habit, plants can form a mat of foliage. Stems are 4 sided and quite hairy.
Flowers: Flowers mostly terminal in a long spike, the spike having conspicuous linear-lanceolate bracts. Flowers are purple blue to pink, tube-shaped, small measured 2-3 mm in diameter.
Leaves: Leaves are opposite, 3 lobed and serrate, generally spatulate in shape. We measured a leaf to 4 cm long and 2 cm wide.
Height: Budd's Flora lists the plant's spread to 80 cm, I measured plants growing to 30 cm wide.
Habitat: Roadsides and disturbed places on lighter soils.
Abundance: Fairly common, ranked as an S4 by the Saskatchewan Conservation Data Centre.
Origin: Native.
When and where photographed: Took the above photos July 6th and July 17th, waste ground University of Regina, August 9th on a edge of a cropped field, near Boharm, about 80 km west of Regina, SK, and on a roadside August 12th near Webb, about 275 km west of our home in Regina, SK.