Veronicastrum virginicum - (image 1 of 5)
Taxonomy
Family: Scrophulariaceae
Habitat
Prairie remnants, sand prairies, thin woodlands.
Associates
Distribution
VT west to Ontario and Manitoba, south to GA and LA.
Morphology
Erect perennial to 2 m, typically with a few branches. Leaves in whorls of 3-6, petiolate, lanceolate to narrowly oblong or oblanceolate, acuminate, finely serrate, glabrous to villous beneath. Flowers numerous, crowded, divergent, in erect spikes 5-15 cm long; calyx deeply 4-5-parted, the lower portion longer than the upper; corolla white, 7-9 mm, tubular, the lobes shorter than the tube; stamens 2, inserted below the middle of the corolla tube, much exserted; style slender, about equaling the stamens; stigma 1. Fruit narrowly ovoid, 4-5 mm.
Notes
Flowers late June to late August
Wetland indicator: Facultative
Most frequent is areas managed by fire. One other species in this genus occurs in eastern Asia.
References
Gleason, Henry A. and A. Cronquist. 1991. Manual of Vascular Plants of
Northeastern United States and Adjacent Canada. Second Ed.
The New York Botanical Garden. Bronx, NY
Swink, F. and G. Wilhelm. 1994. Plants of the Chicago Region.
Indiana Academy of Science. The Morton Arboretum. Lisle, Illinois.
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Michael Hough © 2005 |