Vervain or Verbena

Verbena is a slender perennial herb, 30-90cm tall, with a woody stalk and several stiffly erect stems. The lower leaves are obovate, deeply divided and stalked, the upper ones lanceolate, slender, sessile and toothed. Tiny blue flowers appear in long slender spikes in the axis of a bract, becoming denser higher up each spike. The fruit comprises four cylindrical nutlets enclosed in the calyx. Verbena is indigenous to England, central and southern Europe, North Africa and Asia, and has been introduced into North America. It grows in waysides and waste places.