Vascular Plants of North Carolina
Account for Bird's-eye Speedwell - Veronica persica   Poiret
Members of Plantaginaceae:
Members of Veronica with account distribution info or public map:
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Section 6 » Order Scrophulariales » Family Plantaginaceae
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AuthorPoiret
DistributionThroughout much of the state, with a large gap in the Coastal Plain. First collected in 1911 and 1912 on the campus of UNC Chapel Hill.

Native of Eurasia; in N.A. throughout the U.S. and most of Canada.
AbundanceFrequent to locally common in the Piedmont and Mountains, rare to uncommon in the Coastal Plain.
HabitatFields, fallow fields, campus weed, lawn/garden weed, vacant lots, public parks, roadside dirt piles.
PhenologyFlowering and fruiting February-October.
IdentificationBird's-eye Speedwell has a particularly bright blue flower that is also a bit larger than those of similar species. It is an annual with long flower stalks. See Weakley (2018) for the key to separate from it from V. agrestis, V. hederifolia, and V. polita. V. hederifolia generally has one wide and large central leaf lobe, and 2-3 small ones on the sides; V. persica has more rounded leaves with many teeth-like lobes. The other two species have smaller flowers, well under 8 mm across as opposed to 8-12 mm across in V. persica.
Taxonomic Comments
Other Common Name(s)
State RankSE
Global RankGNR
State Status
US Status
USACE-agcp
USACE-emp
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B.A. SorrieRoadside, Athens, GA, March 2015. Photo_non_NCPhoto_non_NC
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