VERBENACEAE VERVAIN FAMILY 
FOG FRUIT 
Lippia lanceolata Michx. 
This plant was named in honor of a seventeenth century 
naturalist upon whose identity authorities are not wholly 
agreed. Several, however, repeat that he was Auguste Lippi, a 
Frenchman who traveled in 
Abyssinia. 
The Fog Fruit is found in 
moist or wet soil usually near 
streams, from New Jersey and 
Ontario to Minnesota, south to 
Florida, Texas and Mexico. It 
occurs in_ suitable locations 
throughout Illinois. 
This is a close relative of the 
Verbenas but differs from them in 
several respects. The shoots are 
bright green and usually without 
hairs, although they may be 
sparingly covered with forked 
hairs. The slender stems, 1-2 feet 
long, are generally too weak to 
stand erect and so lying on the 
ground often root at the nodes. 
They are simple or little branched. 
The thin, oblong, ovate or oblong-lanceolate leaves are pinnately 
veined, acute tipped, sharply toothed to below the middle, 
narrowed to the somewhat wedge-shaped base, and sometimes 
they also have a few forked hairs on both surfaces. 
The flower clusters, bearing little pale blue flowers from June 
to August, are nearly spherical at first and become elongated later, 
but even in fruit do not exceed one-half inch in length. The bracts 
in the head are acute. The green calyx is flattened and 2-cleft. 
The corolla, not much longer than the calyx, is distinctly 2-lipped 
with the upper lip merely notched and the lower much larger and 
3-lobed. Four short stamens, 2 lower than the others, are attached 
to the corolla tube and do not extend beyond it. The ovary has 
1 ovule in each of its 2 cells, and the style is short and slender. 
The fruit is nearly spherical but at length splits into 2 single- 
seeded nutlets. 
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