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Electronic Flora of South Australia species Fact Sheet

Family: Plantaginaceae
Veronica hederifolia

Citation: L., Sp. Pl. 13 (1753), as "hederaefolia".

Synonymy: Veronica hederaefolia

Common name: Ivy-leaved speedwell.

Description:
Procumbent annual, with the main branches 10-20 or more cm long, with scattered long weak spreading eglandular hairs on the branches, leaves and rhachis, and dense lines of shorter curled eglandular hairs on the branches, rhachis and pedicels; leaves opposite, connected across the node by a ridge, with a slender petiole 2-17 mm long, the blade broad- to transverse-ovate, 5-14 x 5-18 mm, truncate to rounded at the base, with 1-3 pairs of broad rounded teeth, the apical lobe very broad, palmately veined.

Racemes terminal, lax, 10- or more-flowered, the bracts like the leaves in size and shape, the pedicels 5-20 mm long, shorter than or equal to the bract; sepals cordate-ovate, unequal, 2-3.5 mm long, lengthening to 4-5 mm and erect in fruit, long-eglandular-ciliate; corolla blue (or lilac, at least in Europe), with lobes c. 2 mm long, obtuse; anthers broad, 0.7-1 mm long; ovary glabrous, the style terminal, the stigma 0.15-0.2 mm diam.

Capsules not compressed, subglobular, c. 3.5 mm long, c. 4 mm diam., 4-lobed to globular (when seed-set poor), glabrous, with the persistent style 0.5-0.8 mm long.

image of FSA3_Veronica_hed.jpg Flowering branch, leaf, opened flower, fruit and seed.
Image source: fig. 596G in Jessop J.P. & Toelken H.R. (Ed.) 1986. Flora of South Australia (4th edn).

Published illustration: Butcher (1961) A new illustrated British flora 2:fig. 1056; RossCraig (1966) Drawings Brit. Pl. 22:t. 39.

Distribution:  Gardens and waste places.

S.Aust.: NL, MU, SL, KI, SE.   N.S.W.; Vic.; Tas.   Native to Europe.

Conservation status: naturalised

Flowering time: late July — Oct.


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

Biology: No text

Taxonomic notes: The S.Aust. material does not fall readily into the subspecies distinguished for example in Flora Europaea (1972) 3:250.

Author: Not yet available


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