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Photographer: Robert Bierman
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Family Scrophulariaceae
Veronica anagallis-aquatica L.
water speedwell
Veronica: named after Saint Veronica, the woman who gave Jesus a cloth to wipe his face while on the way to Calvary, and so named because the markings on some species supposedly resemble those on her sacred handkerchief
anagallis-aquatica: aquatic Anagallis (Pimpernel)
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| Status: | Native |
| Plant: | trailing to erect biennial/perennial, 4"-10" tall forb, smooth; roots fibrous |
| Flower: | light blue to white, 4-parted, 1/4"-1/3" wide, mature stalks curving backward, lobes longer than the tube; inflorescence a stalked cluster (raceme) of many flowers only from the upper leaf axils; blooms June-Oct. |
| Fruit: | swollen capsule with many seeds |
| Leaf: | all opposite, usually 1 1/2-3 times as long as wide, stalkless, mostly clasping |
| Habitat: | wet; shores, shallows, ditches |
| (Glossary) |
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