Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

Verbena officinalis

Line drawings. g. flowering branch; leaf; flower. E Mayfield, National Herbarium of Victoria, © 2021 Royal Botanic Gardens Board

Common name

A verbena

Family

Verbenaceae

Where found

Pasture and disturbed sites. Widespread, mostly coast and ranges north of Kiama.

Notes

Introduced annual or perennial herb to 1.5 m tall. Stems 4-angled in cross section, ridges smooth or finely rough, surface rough hairy and glandular. Leaves opposite each other, 1.5-12 cm long, 5-50 mm wide, bristly; margins deeply incised to coarsely toothed. Upper leaves smaller than the lower leaves, incised to almost entire, tips pointed. Flowers light blue, pale pink, mauve, purple, bluish-purple, or violet, tubular, the tube 3–5 mm long, with 5 lobes. Calyx 5-toothed. Flowers in branched clusters, the flowers farther apart on the upper part of the flower stalk, closer together higher up. Inflorescence distinctly glandular. Flowers Oct.–Mar.

Verbena officinalis var. officinalis in VICFLORA.

PlantNETdescription:  http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Verbena~officinalis (accessed 15 April 2021)