Thursday, July 14, 2016

Wildflower Identification: Blue Verbena

A common wildflower with the plant varying in height from 2-7 feet tall, and most common along edges of gravel roads or other locations with gravely soil. Flowers appear more purple than blue, but nonetheless our flower below is called a Blue Verbena and is native to Kansas. There are several similar varieties of Verbena including Rose, Dakota, White, Woolly, etc. The Blue Verbena is however the tallest growing species in the Vervain family.


The inflorescences (remember that word from a prior post?) are narrow and spiky, measuring 2-6 inches long with many individual flowers. The flowers themselves are typically less than a 1/4 inch wide and are 5-parted. The example above has just started to bloom, so you can see a good variance in what the inflorescences may look like.

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