Verbena urticifolia
White vervain | |
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Inflorescence | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Eudicots |
Clade: | Asterids |
Order: | Lamiales |
Family: | Verbenaceae |
Genus: | Verbena |
Species: | V. urticifolia
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Binomial name | |
Verbena urticifolia |
Verbena urticifolia, known as nettle-leaved vervain[1] or white vervain, is a herbaceous plant in the vervain family (Verbenaceae). It belongs to the "true" vervains of genus Verbena.
Description[]
White vervain has opposite, simple leaves on thin, rigid, green stems. The leaves look similar to those of Urtica, which is the reason for the plant being named urticifolia. The small flowers are borne in spikes; they open in summer and unusually for this normally bluish-flowered genus are white. The fruit is a dark- colored capsule with many brown and thin seeds. The entire plant except for the flowers and fruit is covered in stiff bristles.
Relation to other vervains[]
This species may be closest to a group that might include such North American species as V. lasiostachys or V. menthifolia, and the common vervain (V. officinalis) from Europe. Like these, it is diploid with a total of 14 chromosomes. The relationship of the swamp verbena (V. hastata) to these other species is more enigmatic; its evolution might have involved hybridization with the white vervain or a related species in the past.[2]
Footnotes[]
- ^ BSBI List 2007 (xls). Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland. Archived from the original (xls) on 2015-06-26. Retrieved 2014-10-17.
- ^ Yuan & Olmstead (2008)
References[]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Verbena urticifolia. |
- Yuan, Yao-Wu & Olmstead, Richard G. (2008): A species-level phylogenetic study of the Verbena complex (Verbenaceae) indicates two independent intergeneric chloroplast transfers. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 48(1): 23–33. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2008.04.004
- Verbena
- Flora of Western Canada
- Plants described in 1753
- Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus
- Flora of Eastern Canada
- Flora of the Northeastern United States
- Flora of the Southeastern United States
- Flora of the North-Central United States
- Flora of Texas
- Verbenaceae stubs