''Verbena bracteata'' is a species of

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 ...

known by the common names bracted vervain, bigbract verbena, prostrate vervain, and carpet vervain. It is native to

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

where it is widespread, occurring throughout the continent except for

northern Canada Northern Canada, colloquially the North or the Territories, is the vast northernmost region of Canada variously defined by geography and politics. Politically, the term refers to the three Provinces_and_territories_of_Canada#Territories, territor ...

and southern Mexico. It occurs in many types of habitat, especially disturbed areas. It typically blooms between the months of May and October. This annual or biennial herb produces several hairy, spreading stems up to 30 centimeters long forming a low mat on the ground. The hairy leaves are toothed or lobed. 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 spike of flowers which is dense with long, pointed, leaflike

bract In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, especially one associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis or cone scale. Bracts are usually different from foliage leaves. They may be smaller, larger, or of ...

s each up to 8 millimeters long. Each small tubular flower is about half a centimeter wide and white to pale purple in color.

References

External links

Jepson Manual TreatmentWashington Burke MuseumPhoto gallery
bracteata Flora of Western Canada Flora of Ontario Flora of the Northwestern United States Flora of the North-Central United States Flora of the Northeastern United States Flora of the Southwestern United States Flora of the South-Central United States Flora of the Southeastern United States Flora without expected TNC conservation status {{Verbenaceae-stub