Plant of the Month ~~ September 2010
updated on or about the 1st of each month
Common Vervain
- Common Name(s): Common Vervain, Western Vervain, Vervain, Common Verbena, Western Verbena, Verbena
- Scientific Name: Verbena lasiostachys
- Family: Verbenaceae, Vervain family
- Plant Type: perennial herb
- Size: up to 3 feet high and as wide or wider
- Common Habitat: open areas, dry or moist, in most any plant community in the Santa Monica Mountains
Common Vervain is a sprawling, much-branched plant with purple-to-blue flower spikes punctuating the ends of upright-curving stems. While native to our mountains, its sprawling nature and ubiquity often conveys a weed-like impression. It blooms from April to September, seemingly less averse to the dry and hot summers than most other flowering plants in the area.
Popular with butterflies and other insects, the cylindrical purple flower spikes are 3 to 10 inches long and less than a half-inch in diameter. These inflorescences are aggregations of tiny individual 5-petaled, 2-lipped flowers, often clustered a short way down from the tops of the spikes. The fruit is described as 4 nutlets. Leaves are opposite or whorled along stems, up to 4 inches long and oblong-ovate with coarsely sawtoothed and/or lobed edges. Slender, wiry stems support the nodding flowers. The plant is hairy througout.
The genus name Verbena is an ancient Latin name which is said to mean holy plant (from herba bona or "the good herb"). The species name lasiostachys means "having woolly flower spikes".
Contributed by Liz Baumann
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References:
Wildflowers of the Santa Monica Mountains, by Milt McAuleyFlowering Plants: The Santa Monica Mountains, Coastal and Chaparral Regions of Southern California, by Nancy Dale
Roadside Plants of Southern California, by Thomas J. Belzer
California Native Plants for the Garden, by Carol Bornstein, David Fross, and Bart O'Brien
California Herbal Remedies, by LoLo Westrich