Species

Veronica americana

Etymology

Veronica: Named after Saint Veronica, who gave Jesus her veil to wipe his brow as he carried the cross through Jerusalem, perhaps because the common name of this plant is 'speedwell'. The name Veronica is often believed to derive from the Latin vera 'truth' and iconica 'image', but it is actually derived from the Macedonian name Berenice which means 'bearer of victory'.
americana: of South America

Common Name(s)

American brooklime, American speedwell

Authority

Veronica americana Benth

Family

Plantaginaceae

Brief Description

Sprawling perennial herb up to 30 cm tall with opposite shortly stalked leaves and small (c. 1 cm across) blue flowers.

Flora Category

Vascular - Exotic

Structural Class

Dicotyledonous Herbs other than Composites

Distribution

Common in the Waikato, Bay of Plenty, and scattered in the southern North Island, Canterbury and Westland.

Habitat

Margins of flowing water bodies, seeps

Features

Perennial growing from shallow creeping rhizomes, hairless throughout, with erect, ascending or trailing, simple stems 10-60 cm long. Leaves: opposite, glossy, all shortly stalked, evidently with small saw-teeth to almost entire, lanceolate to lance-ovate or narrowly almost triangular, or the lower more elliptic, mostly 1.5-8 cm long, 0.6-3 cm wide, generally 2-4 times as long as wide, or the lower a little wider. Flowers: many in long-stalked, open, elongated clusters, mostly 10- to 25-flowered, from upper leaf axils. Corolla 5-10 mm wide, blue or pale violet to almost white, with 4 broad lobes and 2 spreading stamens. Style 2.5-3.5 mm long. Flower stalks in fruit spreading, 5-14 mm long. Fruits: capsule, swollen, 3 mm high and about as wide or slightly wider, scarcely notched. Seeds numerous, 0.5 mm long or less.

Similar Taxa

V. americana is distingushed from the other spp of Veronica by its strongly toother leaves that occur on stalks.

Flowering

Summer to autumn

Flower Colours

Blue,Violet / Purple

Fruiting

Autumn

Year Naturalised

1940

Origin

North America

Reason for Introduction

Probably a soil seed contaminant or contaminant of ornamental pond plants

Control Techniques

Not controlled in New Zealand.

Life Cycle and Dispersal

Perennial

Attribution

Factsheet prepared by Paul Champion and Deborah Hofstra (NIWA).

This page last updated on 21 Aug 2013