Sandpaper Vervain

Description

Erect, single-stemmed annual or perennial to 1 m or more; lvs ovate to elongate-ovate, 3-13 -2.5-5 cm, petiolate, acute or obtusish, toothed, very harshly scabrous and commonly strigillose above, less scabrous and paler beneath but also hispidulous along the veins; spikes paniculately disposed, slender, closely fld and frtd; bracts ovate-acuminate, half as long as the cal, hispidulous; cor white to pinkish or blue, the tube scarcely longer than the cal, the limb 2-3 mm wide, the lobes obtuse; stigmatic surface midway between the 2 subequal sterile lobes; mature cal 2.5-3 mm, hispidulous, divergent, the somewhat unequal lobes connivent; nutlets 1-1.5 mm, faintly striate, reticulate above. Various usually moist habitats; Va. and W.Va. to Fla. and trop. Amer. Mar.-Dec. Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.