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, i-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, i lower than the others, are attached 

 to the corolla tube and do not extend beyond it. The ovary has 

 I 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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