''Veronica perfoliata'', commonly known as digger's speedwell, is a common

perennial A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the years") is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also wide ...

herb In general use, herbs are a widely distributed and widespread group of plants, excluding vegetables and other plants consumed for macronutrients, with savory or aromatic properties that are used for flavoring and garnishing food, for medicinal ...

found at higher altitudes in south-eastern

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. It is a low-growing multi-stemmed plant rising from a woody rootstock. It has rounded blue-grey foliage and sprays of intense violet-blue flowers at the end of arching branches. It is occasionally cultivated as a garden plant.

Description

''Veronica perfoliata'' is an erect woody herb with arching decumbent branches long. The leaves are smooth and bluish green with a powdery bloom, about long and wide. Leaves are either narrow or broad egg-shaped and arranged in opposite pairs, joined to the stem either in a wedge, heart, or stem-clasping configuration. The leaf margin may be entire, finely scalloped or with approximately 10 pairs of rough or shallow sharp teeth. Plants with narrower leaves generally grow in drier situations, whereas the broad-leaf form in wetter cooler locations. Leaves have 3-9 longitudinal veins radiating from the base. Numerous woody stems grow from a rootstock and form a clump, rarely branched below the

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed o ...

. The inflorescence is a slender

raceme A raceme ( or ) or racemoid is an unbranched, indeterminate type of inflorescence bearing flowers having short floral stalks along the shoots that bear the flowers. The oldest flowers grow close to the base and new flowers are produced as the s ...

, long with 25–70 flowers per stem. When fruiting the

pedicel Pedicle or pedicel may refer to: Human anatomy *Pedicle of vertebral arch, the segment between the transverse process and the vertebral body, and is often used as a radiographic marker and entry point in vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty procedures ...

is long. The smooth

calyx Calyx or calyce (plural "calyces"), from the Latin ''calix'' which itself comes from the Ancient Greek ''κάλυξ'' (''kálux'') meaning "husk" or "pod", may refer to: Biology * Calyx (anatomy), collective name for several cup-like structures ...

lobes are long and wide. The individual violet-blue flower petals are long. The seed capsules are egg-shaped long and wide. Capsules are barely flattened, dull, and either rounded or sharply pointed. Flowering occurs from October to February.

Taxonomy and naming

Robert Brown first formally described the species in 1810, using ''V. perfoliata'', in the botanical survey '' Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae''.

Constantine Rafinesque Constantine Samuel Rafinesque-Schmaltz (; October 22, 1783September 18, 1840) was a French 19th-century polymath born near Constantinople in the Ottoman Empire and self-educated in France. He traveled as a young man in the United States, ultimat ...

Barbara Briggs Barbara Gillian Briggs (born 1934) is one of the foremost Australian botanists. The '' IK'' lists 205 names of plants which have been published or co-published by her. She was one of the botanists in the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group, of th1998APG ...

and

Friedrich Ehrendorfer Friedrich Ehrendorfer (born 26 July 1927 in Vienna) is a professor emeritus of plant systematics at the Department of Botany and Biodiversity Research, University of Vienna. He is an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. For ...

changed the name to ''Parahebe perfoliata'' or ''Derwentia perfoliata'', but the changes have not been accepted by the

Australian Plant Census The Australian Plant Census (APC) provides an online interface to currently accepted, published, scientific names of the vascular flora of Australia, as one of the output interfaces of the national government Integrated Biodiversity Information Syst ...

. The

specific epithet In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

(''perfoliata'') refers to the plant having "perfoliate" leaves, where the stem appears to be passing through the leaves. The common name "digger's speedwell" derives from a belief that the species is a reliable indicator of the presence of gold. "Speedwell" is a name for several species of veronica.

Distribution and habitat

Digger's speedwell grows at higher altitudes between high in mountainous meadows, heath, eucalypt forest, and woodland in

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

, the

Australian Capital Territory The Australian Capital Territory (commonly abbreviated as ACT), known as the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) until 1938, is a landlocked federal territory of Australia containing the national capital Canberra and some surrounding townships. ...

, and Victoria. It grows in similar areas to '' V. derwentiana'' but in shallow, often rocky soil on steep slopes rather than deeper soils in shaded sites. The broad range of the species contrasts with the belief that it indicates the presence of gold.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q7922478 Flora of New South Wales Flora of Victoria (state) Flora of the Australian Capital Territory perfoliata Plants described in 1810 Taxa named by Robert Brown (botanist, born 1773)