Persian speedwell

[redbird]

Yesterday, on a short walk in the park, we saw a patch of flowers neither of us recognized. Today, we went back for a longer walk, and I took my camera.

After significant hunting around (it wasn't in my Audubon guide to North American wildflowers, and the first several website I tried didn't find it), I have tentatively identified them as Veronica persica, the Persian speedwell or Birdeye speedwell. I've tossed a photo on Flickr so I can show you (I just picked one of the three I took and cropped it a bit; the color shown on my monitor is similar to what I remember, though of course your hardware may vary).





It doesn't match the Wikipedia description, but flower colors do vary, and nothing else seems to fit. If anyone (jonsinger?) has a better identification, or is confident that this isn't V. persica (even if you don't know what it is) please let me know.

Comments

[boxofdelights]

There are other Veronicas it could be, but if it wasn't in a maintained flowerbed, V. persica is probably right.

[boxofdelights]

I was surprised to see that it's blooming in New York, but I just went out and looked and it's blooming here too!

[kate-schaefer.livejournal.com]

It's almost certainly a veronica, as you surmised. It may be this one: http://www.illinoiswildflowers.info/weeds/plants/ws_speedwell.htm

Then again, it may be some extremely local variant.

[don-fitch.livejournal.com]

Yup, I'd say "it's a Veronica" and "probably one of the little Spring annual species", but am not enough of a taxonimist to get more specific than that. (There are a dozen or more -- mostly non-native -- that are common here in Southern California).

[ellarien]

Definitely speedwell -- it looks exactly like what's growing all over the lawns in front of my (English) apartment. I used to see it in inappropriately well-watered lawns in Tucson, too, so I guess it's one of those things that hitched a ride across the Atlantic at some point.

[redbird]

Mine are a bit purpler. And speedwell is definitely Eurasian, and I think brought to Britain by humans in the early 19th century and thence onward.

[ellarien]

My camera does tend to skew a bit blue -- cf the icon, which was quite a lot purpler in person -- but I think that's a reasonable reproduction of the ones here; they do vary. It may depend somewhat on the acidity of the soil.

[redbird]

Given what I saw in my guidebook and online, either I have an odd varietal, or it's something about the soil.

[amaebi.livejournal.com]

I've always liked that wildflower/weed.