Al Schneider's Rocky Mountains Plant Descriptions

Dakota Mock Vervain
Glandularia bipinnatifida
Verbena family (Verbenaceae)

This lovely plant can be very abundant along the trail. It enjoys sandy areas and thrives in bold sunshine. Plants grow typically from six to twelve inches tall and continue flowering for weeks. Stems are often tinged red and tend to lean outward as the plant elongates and the top gets heavy with flowers and seeds. G. bipinnatifida appears singly and also in dense clusters. Latin gives us "" meaning "acorn," an allusion to the shape.


©2010 Matthew Lee High

Description

with upright to crawling, many branched, angular bristly stems to 18" tall. Opposite leaves are , cut several times (bipinnatifida), short hairy. Flowers are in large, very bright pink to rose to purple showy clusters, subtended by large . Flowers are long tubular (1/2") with 5 flared, notched . Floral are as long or longer than the . are .

Field Marks

Showy cluster of pink to purple flowers often in large colonies.

© Al Schneider

A perennial plant lives and blooms for many years.

lobe -- A rounded parts of a leaf (or other organ).

Bracts are modified leaves associated with a flower.

Glands are plant structures that secrete liquids, salts or other substances. Glands often appear as hairs with a drop of liquid at the end.

calyx -- the sepals of a flower, typically forming a whorl that encloses the petals and forms a protective layer around a flower in bud.

fruit -- any seed-bearing structure in flowering plants. It is formed from the ovary after flowering.

stalk -- The supporting structure of an organ. Examples of stalks are stem, peduncle, petiole, ...

a small nut. A nut being a hard, dry fruit containing only one seed that does not open at maturity.

reticulate -- forming a network such as veins that join one another at more than one point.