Blue Vervain (Verbena hastata)
- Family: Vervain (Verbenaceae)
- Flowering: June-October.
- Field Marks: This erect Verbena has broadly ovate leaves, leaf stalks at least 1/3 inch long, and blue flowers.
- Habitat: Low woods, wet prairies, wet meadows, along streams, in sloughs, in disturbed soil.
- Habit: Perennial herb with fibrous roots.
- Stems: Erect, branched, rough-hairy, 4-sided, up to 5 feet tall.
- Leaves: Opposite, simple, lanceolate to ovate, pointed at the tip, often 3-lobed at the base, coarsely toothed, smooth or hairy.
- Flowers: Crowded into several terminal spikes, each blue flower subtended by a small bract.
- Sepals: 5, unequal in size, green united, hairy, about 1/10 inch long.
- Petals: 5, unequal, united to form a short tube about 1/8 inch long, blue.
- Stamens: 5, attached to the petals.
- Pistils: Ovary superior, 4-parted.
- Fruits: Nutlets 4, very narrow, smooth, about 1/10 inch long.
- Notes: The seeds are eaten by wildlife.
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