Western Wetland Flora
Field Office Guide to Plant Species
Phyla cuneifolia (Torr.) Greene
- Family: Verbena (Verbenaceae)
- Flowering: May-September
- Field Marks: The leaf blades of this frog-fruit are widest above the middle. They have only 1-4 pairs of teeth. The bracts subtending the flowers are about 1/4 inch long and taper to a long point.
- Habitat: Moist prairies.
- Habit: Creeping perennial herb, rooting at the nodes.
- Stems: Creeping to ascending, to 3 feet long, with appressed hairs.
- Leaves: Opposite, simple, narrowly oblanceolate, widest above the middle, up to 1 inch long, up to 1/3 inch wide, pointed at the tip, smooth or sparsely hairy, with 1-4 pairs of teeth.
- Flowers: Several borne in rounded to cylindrical heads, the heads up to 1 inch long, up to 1/2 inch wide, on a stalk up to 2 1/2 inches long; bracts about 1/4 inch long, tapering to a long point.
- Sepals: 4, united below, green, very small.
- Petals: 4, united below to form a tube, white to purplish, the tube up to 1/4 inch long.
- Stamens: 4, attached to the tube of the petals.
- Pistils: Ovary superior, shallowly 4-parted.
- Fruits: Borne in pairs, enclosed by the sepals.
- Notes: The seeds may be eaten by small birds and other animals.
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