Aquatic and Wetland Vascular Plants of the Northern Great Plains
45. Scrophulariaceae, the Figwort Family
9. Veronica L. -- Speedwell2. Veronica anagallis-aquatica L. -- Water speedwell
Erect to spreading, fibrous-rooted biennial or shortlived perennial 1-5 dm tall, glabrous or nearly so. Leaves sessile, opposite, elliptic to elliptic-obovate or elliptic-oblong, 2-10 cm long, 0.6-5 cm wide, 1.5-3X longer than wide, bluntly acute to obtuse at the tip, entire to serrate, mostly clasping. Racemes axillary, many-flowered; pedicels ascending or upcurved, 3-8 mm long; corolla light blue or violet, ca. 5 mm across. Capsule orbicular, turgid, rounded or scarcely notched at the tip, 2.5-4 mm long, about as wide, the style 1.5-2.5 mm long; seeds numerous, 0.5 mm or less long. Jun--Sep. Stream margins and low areas on floodplains, often emergent in shallow water; scattered from e ND to NE; (Intro. from Eurasia and naturalized throughout most of N.Amer.).
Many records of this species in ND were based on misidentified V. catenata.
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Return to Family -- Scrophulariaceae - The Figwort Family
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