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Moss Verbena
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Moss Verbena
ntroduced Photo: Tabish
Common name: Moss Verbena, South American Mock Vervain
Botanical name: Verbena aristigera    Family: Verbenaceae (Verbena family)
Synonyms: Verbena tenuisecta, Glandularia aristigera, Glandularia tenuisecta

Moss Verbena is a perennial herb, originally from South America. Leaves are highly divided and the plant tends to grow low giving it the common name of Moss Verbena. The rough-haired leaves are divided deeply into lobes, giving them a lacy appearance. Violet flowers are borne in dense, multi-floral spikes, enlarged in fruit, carried on flower-cluster-stalk 1-7 cm. Flowers are 1.2 cm, externally hairless, violet, lilac, or pink. Superior pair of stamens with glandular appendages, do not not protrude out of the flower mouth, style 8.5-9 mm. Sepal-cup is about 1 cm, the surface bristly with some patelliform glands, teeth aristate, 0.5-1 mm. Floral bracts are 3–4 mm, ovate, tip pointed, pubescence bristly, sometimes with patelliform glands. Moss Verbena grows fast and will make a quick groundcover for any bare spots in the yard. The flowers are butterfly attractors.

Identification credit: J.M. Garg Photographed in Delhi.

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