''Verbena hastata'', commonly known as American vervain, blue vervain, simpler's joy, or swamp verbena, is a

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 ...

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...

in the vervain family

Verbenaceae The Verbenaceae ( ), the verbena family or vervain family, is a family of mainly tropical flowering plants. It contains trees, shrubs, and herbs notable for heads, spikes, or clusters of small flowers, many of which have an aromatic smell. The ...

. It grows throughout the continental United States and in much of southern Canada.

Description

''V. hastata'' grows as a stiffly erect stem, occasionally branching in the upper half, reaching up to tall. The stems are four-angled (square), hairy, and green to reddish in color. Leaves are opposite, simple, and measure up to long and across. They have doubly-serrate margins and a variety of shapes, from

lanceolate The following is a list of terms which are used to describe leaf morphology in the description and taxonomy of plants. Leaves may be simple (a single leaf blade or lamina) or compound (with several leaflets). The edge of the leaf may be regular o ...

ovate Ovate may refer to: *Ovate (egg-shaped) leaves, tepals, or other botanical parts *Ovate, a type of prehistoric stone hand axe *Ovates, one of three ranks of membership in the Welsh Gorsedd *Vates In modern English, the nouns vates () and ovat ...

, and may have 2 lateral lobes. 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 ...

is a

panicle A panicle is a much-branched inflorescence. (softcover ). Some authors distinguish it from a compound spike inflorescence, by requiring that the flowers (and fruit) be pedicellate (having a single stem per flower). The branches of a panicle are of ...

, or group, of flowering spikes, up to long at the end of the upper stems. Each flowering spike in the panicle is up to long, with densely packed, numerous 5-lobed flowers, which measure up to long. The flowers are violet or deep purple, rarely white. They open from the bottom of the spike upward, with only a ring of a few flowers open at a time.

Taxonomy

This

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

is a member of the

diploid Ploidy () is the number of complete sets of chromosomes in a cell, and hence the number of possible alleles for autosomal and pseudoautosomal genes. Sets of chromosomes refer to the number of maternal and paternal chromosome copies, respectively ...

North American vervains which have 14

chromosomes A chromosome is a long DNA molecule with part or all of the genetic material of an organism. In most chromosomes the very long thin DNA fibers are coated with packaging proteins; in eukaryotic cells the most important of these proteins are ...

altogether.

Hybrid Hybrid may refer to: Science * Hybrid (biology), an offspring resulting from cross-breeding ** Hybrid grape, grape varieties produced by cross-breeding two ''Vitis'' species ** Hybridity, the property of a hybrid plant which is a union of two dif ...

ization seems to have played some role in its

evolution Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...

, presumably between some member of a group including the

white vervain ''Verbena urticifolia'', known as nettle-leaved vervain or white vervain, is a herbaceous plant in the vervain family (Verbenaceae). It belongs to the "true" vervains of genus ''Verbena''. Description White vervain has opposite, simple leaves ...

(''V. urticifolia''), '' V. lasiostachys'' or '' V. menthifolia'', and '' V. orcuttiana'' or a related species. In the recent

ary past, there has been an incident of

chloroplast A chloroplast () is a type of membrane-bound organelle known as a plastid that conducts photosynthesis mostly in plant and algal cells. The photosynthetic pigment chlorophyll captures the energy from sunlight, converts it, and stores it in ...

transfer of one of the latter or the swamp verbena to the

mock vervain ''Glandularia'', common name mock vervain or mock verbena, is a genus of Annual plant, annual and Perennial plant, perennial herbaceous plant, herbaceous flowering plants in the family (biology), family Verbenaceae. They are native plant, nativ ...

Glandularia bipinnatifida ''Glandularia bipinnatifida'', commonly called Dakota mock vervain, prairie verbena, and Moradilla, among others, is a species of flowering plant in the verbena family (Verbenaceae). It is native to the North America, where its natural range ext ...

'' which is a close relative of the

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

Verbena ''Verbena'' (), also known as vervain or verveine, is a genus in the family Verbenaceae. It contains about 150 species of annual and perennial herbaceous or semi-woody flowering plants. The majority of the species are native to the Americas a ...

''. It is unknown by what mechanism this happened, but it is suspected that hybridization is not responsible.

Etymology

The Latin

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 ...

''hastata'' means "spear-shaped".

Distribution and habitat

''V. hastata'' is native in the United States in all states except Alaska and Hawaii. In Canada, it is native in the provinces of British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ottawa, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. The plant prefers moist conditions and typically grows in wet meadows, wet river bottomlands, stream banks, slough peripheries, fields and waste areas. It is adapted to wetlands and can spread to form small colonies.

Ecology

The flowers bloom from mid- to late summer. It attracts bees and is a larval host to the common buckeye butterfly (

Junonia coenia ''Junonia coenia'', known as the common buckeye or buckeye, is a butterfly in the family Nymphalidae. It is found in the United States east of the Rocky Mountains and in Mexico. Its habitat is open areas with low vegetation and some bare ground. ...

),The Xerces Society (2016), ''Gardening for Butterflies: How You Can Attract and Protect Beautiful, Beneficial Insects'', Timber Press. the verbena moth (''

Crambodes talidiformis ''Crambodes'' is a monotypic moth genus of the family Noctuidae. Its only species, ''Crambodes talidiformis'', is found in the eastern United States as far west as Kansas, Texas and Colorado. Both the genus and species were first described by Ac ...

''), and the verbena bud moth (''

Endothenia hebesana ''Endothenia hebesana'', the verbena bud moth, is a species of moth of the family Tortricidae. It is found in North America, where it has been recorded from Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, Flo ...

'').

Footnotes

References

*Yuan, Yao-Wu & Olmstead, Richard G. (2008): A species-level phylogenetic study of the ''Verbena'' complex (Verbenaceae) indicates two independent intergeneric chloroplast transfers. ''

Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution ''Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal of evolutionary biology and phylogenetics. The journal is edited by E.A. Zimmer. Indexing The journal is indexed in: *EMBiology *Journal Citation Reports *Scopus ...

'' 48(1): 23–33.

External links

* * *
Jepson Manual Treatment

Washington Burke Museum
{{Taxonbar, from=Q384029 hastata Flora of Western Canada Plants described in 1753 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus Flora of Eastern Canada Flora of the Northeastern United States Flora of the Southeastern United States Flora of the North-Central United States Flora of the South-Central United States Flora of the Northwestern United States Flora of the Southwestern United States