Family |
Plantaginaceae
Veronica hederifolia
L.
Veronica hederifolia L.
First published in Sp. Pl.: 13 (1753).
(Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 3, pp. 261–262, Pl. CXXXII, 6; 1983)
Description
Life-form & habit: Branched annual with prostrate or slightly ascending stems, 10–30 cm long, bearing non-glandular hairs.
Leaves: Stalked and somewhat fleshy, broadly rounded with a truncate or slightly heart-shaped base. Leaf-like floral bracts usually have five lobes, the terminal lobe largest; ordinary leaves are less deeply lobed.
Inflorescence & flowers: Flowers borne among leaf-like bracts. Buds are erect. The pale-blue, white-centred corolla is bowl-shaped, 5–9 mm across, about as long as the calyx. In fruit, triangular, hair-fringed calyx lobes converge into a pyramid.
Fruit: A hairless, inflated, nearly spherical capsule, 3–4 mm long, shorter than the calyx, containing 3–4 deeply cup-shaped seeds.
Flowering and habitat
Phenology: Flowering January–May.
Habitat & elevation: Cultivated ground and fields up to the mountain belt.
Distribution
Lebanese distribution: Zahle, Ghazir, Ainata and Bqaatouta.
Syrian distribution: Damascus, Souq Wadi Barada, Yabroud, Bloudane, Aleppo and Jabal Abiad.
Native range: Albania, Algeria, Austria, Baleares, Baltic States, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canary Is., Central European Russia, Corse, Cyprus, Czechia-Slovakia, Denmark, East Aegean Is., East European Russia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iran, Iraq, Italy, Kazakhstan, Kirgizstan, Kriti, Krym, Lebanon-Syria, Libya, Madeira, Morocco, Netherlands, North Caucasus, Northwest European Russia, Norway, NW. Balkan Pen., Palestine, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Sardegna, Sicilia, South European Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tadzhikistan, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Türkiye, Türkiye-in-Europe, Ukraine, Uzbekistan.
Introduced into: Alabama, Arkansas, British Columbia, California, Cape Provinces, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, East Himalaya, Florida, Georgia, Great Britain, Illinois, Indiana, Ireland, Japan, Kansas, Kentucky, Korea, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Ontario, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Taiwan, Tasmania, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia.
⚠️ Taxonomic note:
Mouterde distinguishes this species from Veronica triloba and limits the listed localities to checked specimens.