Verbena incompta
Synonyms
Verbena bonariensis var. brevibracteata Kuntze
Family
Verbenaceae
Flora category
Vascular – Exotic
Structural class
Herbs - Dicotyledons other than Composites
NVS code
The National Vegetation Survey (NVS) Databank is a physical archive and electronic databank containing records of over 94,000 vegetation survey plots - including data from over 19,000 permanent plots. NVS maintains a standard set of species code abbreviations that correspond to standard scientific plant names from the Ngä Tipu o Aotearoa - New Zealand Plants database.
VERINC
Conservation status
Not applicable
Distribution
Kermadec Islands. North Island: Common to abundant north of the central North Island Volcanic Plateau as well as on the East Coast; south of this becoming generally uncommon. South Island: common in lowland areas in Nelson and Marlborough; rare and very local further south to Otago.
Introduced in Central America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Pacific Islands (Fiji, Norfolk Island, Papua New Guinea), Australia.
Habitat
Verbena incompta is a xenophyte of a range of habitats, all mostly open and modified, including roadsides, waste places, farmland and near settlements. The powdery mildew Podosphaera xanthii is commonly seen on V. incompta in New Zealand.
Detailed description
Plants annual or short-lived perennial, taprooted or with ligneous fibrous roots. Stems erect, 100–200 cm, scabrous to hispid or hispid-hirsute, eglandular. Leaves persistent, ovate to ovatelanceolate, oblong-elliptic, or obovate, basally subclasping and subcordate, midstem blades (3–)5–10 cm x 10–35 mm, veins impressed adaxially, hispid-hirsute on both surfaces or strigose-hirsute adaxially, margins coarsely serrate; petioles absent. Spikes in 3s, forming compound cymes, the central mostly sessile on peduncles 0(–3) mm, inflorescence aspect corymbiform, comprising relatively compact and distinct clusters and subclusters, central and laterals dense and thick in fruit, (6–)10–40(–55) mm x 4–6 mm; floral bracts ovate to lanceolate or narrowly lanceolate, keeled, 3–4 mm, slightly longer than the calyces or equal, margins ciliate. Calyces 2.5–3.5 mm, strigose to strigose-hirsute, eglandular, lobes connivent. Corollas purple to red-purple, violet, or white, tubes 2.5–4 mm, limbs 3.5–5.5 mm in diam. Nutlets 1–1.2 (–1.4) mm, commissural faces extending to very tip of nutlets, densely bullate.
Similar taxa
Distinguished from the similar V. bonariensis by the shortly exerted, narrow corollas, longer flower spikes and broader leaves - generally a much more robust plant.
For further detail on the delination of this species see the factsheet for V. bonariensis.
Origin
Native to South America
Attribution
Fact sheet prepared by Marley Ford (5 March 2022). Brief description and Distribution sections are copied from Nesom (2010).
References and further reading
Ford M. (2022). Verbena incompta P.W.Michael: an overlooked name for an old weed in New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Botany: 1–11. (Published online: 23 May 2022)
Nesom G.L. (2010). Taxonomic notes on Verbena bonariensis (Verbenaceae) and related species in the USA. Phytoneuron 12: 1–16.