15. Veronica triphyllos L.

Pl. 489 c–e; Map 2246

Plants annual, with slender taproots. Stems 5–17 cm long, erect or ascending, sometimes from a spreading base (not rooting at the lower nodes), moderately to densely pubescent with spreading, mostly glandular hairs. Leaves sessile or short-petiolate. Leaf blades 0.7–1.5 cm long, 1.0–1.2 times as long as wide, ovate to broadly ovate, mostly broadest below the midpoint, broadly angled to broadly rounded or truncate at the base, not clasping the stems, palmately 3–7(9)-lobed, the lobes rounded or broadly and bluntly to occasionally sharply pointed at their tips, the margins flat, otherwise entire or rarely with a small, blunt tooth along 1 or both margins, the surfaces moderately to densely pubescent with short, glandular hairs. Inflorescences terminal, spikelike racemes, these short and condensed at the start of flowering, but elongating with age, often extending nearly to the stem base but not appearing as solitary axillary flowers, with 4–12 flowers, the axis visible between the flowers (except sometimes at the start of flowering), the bracts 3–10 mm long, the lowermost similar in size to the foliage leaves, gradually reduced, those toward the inflorescence tip noticeably smaller than the foliage leaves, more or less ovate in outline, deeply 3(5)-lobed, the lobes slender. Flower stalks 2–5 mm long at flowering (to 8[–12] mm at fruiting), mostly shorter than the calyces at flowering, upcurved to ascending at flowering and fruiting. Calyces 3–4 mm long (to 8 mm at fruiting), the lobes unequal, the upper 2 lobes shorter than the lower 2 lobes, deeply 4-lobed, the lobes broadly oblanceolate to oblong-oblanceolate, pubescent with spreading, glandular hairs. Corollas 3.0–4.5 mm wide (2.5–3.5 mm long), blue with darker veins, the throat white or more commonly yellowish-tinged or light green, the tube appearing relatively broad, wider than long, the lobes more or less bell-shaped. Style 1.2–1.6 mm long at fruiting. Fruits 4.2–5.5 mm long, about as long as wide or more commonly slightly longer, more or less heart-shaped in profile, flattened, the notch relatively deep (0.8–1.1 mm), the surfaces glandular-hairy, dehiscing along the sutures into 2 valves. Seeds mostly 6–12 per locule, 1.5–2.0 mm long, cup-shaped (deeply concave on one side, convex on the other), the convex surface appearing cross-wrinkled, brown. 2n=14. April–June.

Introduced, uncommon, known thus far only from St. Charles and St. Louis Counties (native of Europe; introduced sporadically in the western, central and southeastern U.S.). Edges of crop fields, roadsides, and open, disturbed areas.

This species was first reported for Missouri by Yatskievych and Sullivan (1992).