Citation: Sprengel, Syst. Veg. 4, 2:230 (1827).

Synonymy: Verbena rigida, Verbena scaberrima, Verbena venosa

Common name: Veined verbena.

Description:
Scabrid-pubescent perennial, 20-100 cm high; stems branched underground, the aerial floriferous ones simple or little-branched, erect or ascending, quadrangular, very scabrous-hirsute; leaves sessile, oblong-lanceolate, rigid, half-clasping, 3-10 cm long, 1-2.5 cm wide, acute, distantly dentate-serrate, with conspicuous veins, scabrous and more or less minutely hispid on both surfaces.

Inflorescence a lax terminal corymb with long branches each ending in a dense spike; spikes short and broad, usually dense-flowered, eventually cylindrical, 1-5 cm long in fruit; bracts longer than the calyx, lanceolate-subulate, scabrid and ciliate; flowers very showy; calyx 5-toothed, 4-6 mm long, glandular-pubescent or hirsute; corolla reddish-purple, light-lilac, or blue-violet, 2 or 3 times as long as the calyx, with corolla limb 5-10 mm across, the slender tube 8-10 mm long, curved, pubescent in the upper part outside and within; stamens included, inserted below the middle of the corolla tube; ovary ellipsoid, glabrous; style about half as long as the corolla tube; stigma subcapitate.

V. venosa Gillies & Hook. in Hook., Bot. Misc. 1:167 (1829); V. scaberrima Cham., Linnaea 7:267 (1832).

	Flowering branch, flower and opened flower.
Image source: fig. 545C in Jessop J.P. & Toelken H.R. (Ed.) 1986. Flora of South Australia (4th edn).

Published illustration: Hooker, W. J. (1832) Curtis's Bot. Mag. 59:t. 3127 as V. venosa; Everist (1957) Common weeds farm & pasture, fig. 58; Rickett (1970) Wildflowers of the United States 3, 2:pl. 111.).

Distribution:  S.Aust.: SL.   Qld; N.S.W.; Vic.   Native to central Brazil and north Argentina; widely cultivated and naturalised in many parts of North, Central, and South America, the West Indies, Europe, South Africa, India, the Pacific Islands, Micronesia and Australia. Conservation status: naturalised Flowering time: mainly Sept. — Dec.

SA Distribution Map based on current data relating to specimens held in the State Herbarium of South Australia

Biology: It has been suspected of causing sickness in domestic stock.

Author: Not yet available