Blue Vervain, Verbena hastata

About Blue Vervain (Verbena hastata) 2 Nurseries Carry This Plant

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Verbena hastata (American vervain, blue vervain or swamp verbena) is a flowering plant in the vervain family, Verbenaceae. It is a herb with opposite, simple leaves which have double-serate margins, borne on stiffly erect, branching square stems. The flowers appear in summer and are purple. This is a common plant that occurs across North America. They are hardy and drought resistant. This species is a member of the diploid North American vervains which have 14 chromosomes altogether. Hybridization seems to have played some role in its evolution, presumably between some member of a group including the White Vervain (V. urticifolia), V. lasiostachys or V. menthifolia, and V. orcuttiana or a related species. In the recent evolutionary past, there has been an incident of chloroplast transfer of one of the latter or the Swamp Verbena to the mock vervain Glandularia bipinnatifida which is a close relative of the genus Verbena. It is unknown by what mechanism this happened, but it is suspected that hybridization is not responsible.

Plant Description

Plant Type

Perennial herb

Size

5 ft tall

Flower Color

Blue, Purple

Flowering Season

Summer

Wildlife Supported

Butterflies & moths hosted ( 7 likely * ) SHOW ALL

Common Buckeye Junonia coeniaJunonia coenia

White-lined Sphinx Hyles lineataHyles lineata

Bilobed Looper Moth Megalographa bilobaMegalographa biloba

Oblique-Banded Leafroller Moth Choristoneura rosaceanaChoristoneura rosaceana

Lantana Stick Caterpillar Neogalea suniaNeogalea sunia

Fine-Lined Sallow Catabena lineolataCatabena lineolata

Omnivorous Looper Sabulodes aegrotataSabulodes aegrotata

Landscaping Information

Sun

Full Sun

Moisture

Low

Nurseries

Carried by 2

Ease of Care

Moderately Easy

Soil Drainage

Fast

Common uses

Deer Resistant, Bee Gardens

Propagation?

For propagating by seed: No treatment. (Emery and Frey 1971).

Sunset Zones?

1, 2, 3, 7*, 8*, 9*, 10*, 14*, 15*, 16*, 18, 19*, 20*, 21*, 22*, 23*, 24

Natural Setting

Site Type

Sandy places, washes, rocky slopes

Climate

Annual Precipitation: 12.0" - 50.9", Summer Precipitation: 0.22" - 1.01", Coldest Month: 34.4" - 50.1", Hottest Month: 62.5" - 75.6", Humidity: 1.62" - 24.49", Elevation: -17" - 4511"

Alternative Names

Common Names: Swamp Verbena

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Sources include: Wikipedia. All text shown in the "About" section of these pages is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Plant observation data provided by the participants of the California Consortia of Herbaria, Sunset information provided by Jepson Flora Project. Propogation from seed information provided by the Santa Barbara Botanical Garden from "Seed Propagation of Native California Plants" by Dara E. Emery. Sources of plant photos include CalPhotos, Wikimedia Commons, and independent plant photographers who have agreed to share their images with Calscape. Other general sources of information include Calflora, CNPS Manual of Vegetation Online, Jepson Flora Project, Las Pilitas, Theodore Payne, Tree of Life, The Xerces Society, and information provided by CNPS volunteer editors, with special thanks to Don Rideout. Climate data used in creation of plant range maps is from PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University, using 30 year (1981-2010) annual "normals" at an 800 meter spatial resolution.

Links: Jepson eFlora Taxon Page CalPhotos Wikipedia Calflora

Blue Vervain

Verbena hastata

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Blue VervainVerbena hastata

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Blue Vervain

Verbena hastata