Common vervain is a European wildflower with square stems and long, slender spikes of tiny pale purple flowers, revered for centuries in European folklore as a "holy herb." It is not native to the US but has naturalized in scattered places, on roadsides and in fields.
Appearance
- Appearance
- A perennial about 1–3 ft (30–100 cm) tall, occasionally taller, with upright, square stems.
- Leaves
- Opposite leaves ¾–3 in (2–8 cm) long, lobed, toothed, or both.
- Flowers
- Tiny five-lobed flowers in blue-purple to pinkish shades, spaced along slender spikes 4–10 in (10–25 cm) long.
- Fruit
- The dry fruit splits into four tiny pieces, each with one seed.
Look-alikes
Where it lives
- Typical habitats
- Roadsides
- Fields and meadows
- Waste ground
- Range
- Native to Europe and widely naturalized in North America. In the US it is an introduced plant that turns up in scattered places; in New England, for example, it is recorded in Connecticut and Massachusetts.
- Preferred conditions
- Favors soils.
Growing it
- Care
- Sometimes grown in herb gardens; it can be started from seed or root cuttings.
Name and classification
- About the name
- It is sometimes called blue vervain, but that name more often means the native Verbena hastata. Texas vervain (Verbena halei) has sometimes been lumped into this species.
Conservation
- IUCN Red List
- NENot EvaluatedNot yet assessed
Culture and stories
- Culture and stories
- German calls it Eisenkraut ("iron herb"), and several other European languages also name it after iron.
- In traditional Austrian medicine, vervain tea was taken for fevers and infections.
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