Veronica arvensis

Differs from V. peregrina in that its bracts are shorter than the flowers, and its flower is bluish. Veronica peregrina has bracts longer than its flowers and a flower that is whitish. Both these species may be distinguished from the other two species found on coastal prairie because they have sessile flowers in racemes subtended by bracts that look quite different from leaves lower on the stems. Veronica persica and V. polita have flowers on pedicels in the axils of leaves that resemble the lower stem leaves.

Seeds germinate well when freshly harvested (Dorph-Peterson 1924). Seeds stored in dry, cold conditions appear to after-ripen for 6 months (Kelly 1952).

A native of Eurasia that is now naturalized throughout most of the United States and south Canada.

Moist open-wooded slopes, fields, sandy flatwoods, roadsides, moist meadows throughout Louisiana and east Texas.