Ontario Weeds: Bird's eye speedwell
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Excerpt from Publication 505, Ontario Weeds,
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Table of Contents
- Name
- Other Names
- Family
- General Description
- Flowers and Fruit
- Stems and Roots
- Habitat
- Similar Species
- For more information...
Name: Bird's-eye speedwell, Veronica persica Poir.,
Other Names:véronique de Perse, Bird's-eye, Veronica, véronique de Tournefort
Family: Figwort or Snapdragon Family (Scrophulariaceae)
General Description: Annual, reproducing only by seed.Photos and Pictures
Bird's eye speedwell. A. Plant.
B. Flower. C. Seedpod.
Stems & Roots: Similar to Corn speedwell but stems longer (10-40 cm, 4-16 in.), weakly upright or often lying on the ground and rooting from nodes touching the soil; lower leaves opposite (2 per node), short-stalked, rounded to ovate, coarsely toothed; upper leaves similar in shape to the lower ones but alternate (1 per node), stalkless, each alternate leaf with a long-stalked flower in its axil.
Flowers & Fruit: Calyx deeply 4-lobed, 6-8mm (¼-1/3in.) long; corolla blue, 8-11mm (1/3-½ in.) across, flat, 4-lobed; stamens 2; seedpods flat, broadly heart-shaped, the lobes pointing outwards with a shallow notch, and a persistent, long thin style. Flowers and seeds from May to autumn.
Habitat: Bird's-eye speedwell occurs throughout Ontario in lawns, gardens, cultivated fields and waste places.
Similar Species: It is distinguished by its rather coarse habit of growth, large roundish leaves on the upper as well as lower parts of the plant, its long-stalked large blue flowers and its flat, broadly heart-shaped seedpods with spreading lobes and persistent, long style. In the fruiting stage, it is sometimes confused with Shepherd's-purse, but is clearly distinct by having each long flower stalk from the axil of a rounded leafy bract and the deeply 4-lobed calyx remaining around the base of each seedpod; whereas in Shepherd's-purse both bracts and sepals being absent from below the seedpods.
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