Common name: Creeping Speedwell
Veronica persica Poir. APNI*
Description: Herb with sprawling or erect stems to c. 30 cm long, pilose or with scattered long soft hairs.
Leaves with lamina broad-ovate to elliptic, 0.4–2.2 cm long, 3–23 mm wide, apex obtuse to rounded, base cuneate or subcordate, margins coarsely toothed, pilose; petiole to 10 mm long but mostly <5 mm.
Flowers appearing solitary in axils of leaf-like bracts; pedicels often recurved, 20–40 mm long in fruit. Calyx lobes 5–9 mm long, 2.5–3 mm wide in fruit, ciliate. Corolla 2–6 mm long, blue or bluish white.
Capsule oblate, 4–5 mm long, 5.5–10 mm wide, emarginate, prominently veined, margin ciliate.
Flowering: winter–spring.
Distribution and occurrence: Grows in pasture, disturbed sites, stockyards and as a weed of gardens; chiefly in coastal districts, west to Tamworth, Wellington and Albury districts. Native of Eur.
NSW subdivisions: *NC, *CC, *SC, *NT, *CT, *ST, *NWS, *CWS, *SWS, *SWP, *LHI
Other Australian states: *Qld *Vic. *Tas. *W.A. *S.A.
This species is polypoid and of relatively recent hybrid origin.
Text by B. G. Briggs, B. Wiecek & A. J. Whalen Taxon concept: Flora of NSW 3 (1992)
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