VERVAIN FAMILY 



VERBENACEAE 



BRACTED VERBENA 



Verbena bracteosa Michx. 



All Vervains are bracted; that is, the flowers are arranged 

 in a spike which is in the axil of a bract. But this is the only 

 common species that has conspicuous bracts longer than the 



flowers and fruits. 



This is the only common species 

 that is annual instead of perennial and 

 partly for this reason it is more weed- 

 like than the others. It is found in 

 waste places along roadsides and rail- 

 roads and in fields from Virginia and 

 Minnesota to British Columbia, south 

 to Florida, Arizona and California. 



The whole plant is exceedingly 

 hairy, and the 4-angled, much branched 

 stems are 6-15 inches long. They do 

 not grow upright like the other Ver- 

 vains but are low and more or less 

 prostrate like the Verbenas of our 

 gardens. The bracts are rather stiff 

 and the lower, like all the leaves, are 

 often sharply lobed. 



The flowers, blooming from June 

 to September, are purplish blue and in 

 structure resemble those of the Nar- 

 row-leaved Vervain, page 268, though 

 about two-thirds the size, or little 

 more than one-eighth inch long. 



The Small-flowered Verbena, Verbena 

 bipinnatifida Nutt., is a less common, branching and sprawling per- 

 ennial whose flowers resemble the garden Verbena, or Mexican 

 species. The square stem may be 18 inches high and the whole plant 

 may be hairy. The leaves are once or twice pinnately divided into 

 linear or oblong segments. The dense spikes are terminal and short, 

 lengthening in fruit. The purple or lilac corollas are one-halt inch 

 long and equally broad. The bracts are linear-awl shaped and mostly 

 shorter than the fruit. The latter is slightly more than one-eighth 

 inch long. This is a western species at home on dry plains and prairies 

 from western Illinois and Nebraska to Missouri, Texas and Mexico. 



270 



