Phyla nodiflora  (L.) Greene  var. nodiflora   =Lippia nodiflora var. rosea   Verbenaceae (Vervain Family)   South America Garden Lippia

                                 July Photo

Plant Characteristics:  Low herb, plants matted, more or less woody near base, cinereous-strigulose; lvs. pale green, narrow-oblanceolate to obovate, entire to toothed, broadest above the middle, serrate only above the middle, teeth pointing forward, 1-2 cm. long, +/- acutish; peduncles 1-3 cm. long; spikes ovoid, mostly 5-8 (-10) mm. long; bracts ovate; calyx 2-lobed, ca. 1 mm. long; corolla rose to white, 4-5 mm. long.      The general dimensions of my specimen exceed those in Munz by substantial amounts.  Lvs. 2-2.5 cm.; peduncles 4.5-6 cm.; spikes (mature) 15 mm.; calyx 3 mm.; corolla 5 mm.

Habitat: Used as a groundcover and well established in +/- moist waste places in cent. and cismontane s. Calif.; Santa Catalina Id.  May-Oct.

Name:  Named for Augustin Lippi, 1678-1705, French physician and traveler in Abyssinia and Egypt. Latin, nodus, knobby and Latin, floris, flower (Jaeger 103,167,312).  The species name probably refers to the dried bracts and corollas remaining on the fl. spike after the fls. have died.

General:  Rare in the study area having only been found near the bridge where Back Bay Dr. crosses the small stream running from Big Canyon.  The population disappeared within two or three years after I first discovered it.  (my comment).      Rather a large genus of over 100 spp., often divided into several.  (Munz, Flora So. Calif. 850).       Densely matted plants with lvs. less than 1 cm. wide, widely naturalized from South America, have been called Lippia nodiflora var. rosea.  (Hickman, Ed. 1086).

Text Ref:  Hickman, Ed. 1086; Munz, Calif. Flora 689; Munz, Flora So. Calif. 850; Roberts 41.

Photo Ref:  July 2, 83 # 20.

Identity: by Walt Wright.

First Found:  July 1983.

Computer Ref:  Plant Data 293.

Plant specimen donated to UC Riverside in 2004.

Last edit 8/8/05.