Speedwell (Veronica sp.)
Mar. 14th, 2010 03:19 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
melannen posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
common_natureI have made a resolution this year to, every week, take a picture of an organism that is either showing its mating display or carrying the next generation, and then identify the organism. (Actually, I've made this resolution every year for several years; this year I'm going to go actually post the results for once!) I'm calling it the Fecundity Project because I can't think of a better word that covers the mating habits of flowering and non-flowering plants, fungi, molds and micro-organisms, and whatever else I might stumble upon. This is modeled on ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
urpban's 365 Urban Species Project from several years ago, only I'm not quite as amazing as he is, so my identifications will be more tentative - in particular, I'm not going to be fussy about getting the exact species identification as long as I have the genus and several common names. (I have a whole rant about the limited usefulness of Linnaean taxonomic species in many cases compared to folk taxonomies, but I will save it for later, I think.) Anyone who wants to join in - adding to or correcting mine, or with posts of your own - is more than welcome to, especially since mine will, by default, be focused on American and Western European common names.
Since it's late-early-spring where I live, I'll be starting with early spring flowering weeds; the hard late winter this year has everything starting up several weeks later than usual, so the first weeds are only just now blooming.
Fecundity Project 1: Speedwell (Veronica sp.)
Photograph taken noon, March 14 2010, Glen Burnie, MD
This is almost certainly Veronica persica, sometimes called bird's-eye or winter speedwell, but could be V. agrestis or V. arvensis or several others of the early-blooming weedy speedwells. The speedwells (all of genus Veronica) are a large group of plants, all of which have small, four-petaled blue, purple, or white flowers, but they vary greatly otherwise. Some of the larger, showier species, which have their flowers on tall spikes of inflorescence, are decorative garden plants, though none of the flowers are durable when cut. The large water speedwells (called brooklimes in America) are sometimes used as cooked edible greens, potherbs in edible wild plants jargon; they often grow near watercress, and supposedly go very well with it in terms of flavor.
The speedwell I've pictured here is neither of those: it's one of several that mostly grow as small weeds in mowed or cropped lawns and other disturbed areas: but keep in mind that many weedy herbs will grow into an entirely different shape in a mowed lawn than an open meadow, so the same tiny plant I've pictured here is often said in field guides to grow to a foot tall or more. Similarly, plants often have different-looking foliage for their first few weeks; some very early flowers bloom before they have mature leaves. The speedwells can have widely varying foliage anyway, but the distinctive feature of all the lawn-weed speedwells I know in this area are the half-centimeter or less diameter, periwinkle blue, simple flowers, with a paler center and darker lines radiating out; a common name for them is Birdseye, which is a fairly good descriptive of the way the tiny blue flowers peek out of groundcover.
Many of the speedwells also have a history of use as medicinal herbs, at least in Europe; my book of traditional Pennsylvania Dutch herbology gives the German common name ehrenpreis, said to derive from "Honor and Price" due to its value in medicine, and lists uses as a diuretic, and for asthma, catarrh, coughs, to promote menstruation, and for skin diseases. The medicinal part is the juices of the leaves; Speedwell was used medicinally as a gargle, in an herbal tea or infusion, and with a topical application of the juices. I have not tested any of these uses, and as far as I know, none of them have any substantial scientific testing either way, but all Veronica plants are known to be high in vitamin C (which could explain the use as a kind of broad-spectrum medicinal), and none are poisonous in moderation.
The scientific name Veronica comes from a European common name that predates Linnaean classification, and is still sometimes used as a common name in English. It's said to derive from the fact that the dark markings in the flowers can sometimes resemble a human face, so they were called for St. Veronica's veil which bears the print of the face of Christ. (As a child I called them "tiny pansy" for the same reason - pansies are also sometimes said to look like a face.) The most widely used common name, speedwell, is given two different derivations: the first is a badly-attested supposedly Irish myth that pinning a sprig of speedwell brings good luck on journeys. The second is an entirely unattested theory that it was named for the plant's ability to quickly spread over disturbed areas and into new ones. (I can't help but theorize, myself, that it could be based on the medicinal use; perhaps it was a medieval version of Airborne...) Speedwell is one of those plants that probably originated somewhere in Eurasia but followed the human diaspora so quickly and widely that it grows nearly world-wide and it's difficult to say where it's native and where it isn't.
The most famous non-plant Speedwell is the Mayflower's sister ship of that name, one of the two ships that was supposed to bring the first European settlers to the Massachussetts colony in the 17th century. However, the Speedwell's crew sabotaged her twice in order to get out of their year-long contract, so she never actually made it across. This seems like a very suitable fate for a ship named after a highly opportunistic weed. :D
More pictures of speedwells
urpban's 365 Urban Species Project from several years ago, only I'm not quite as amazing as he is, so my identifications will be more tentative - in particular, I'm not going to be fussy about getting the exact species identification as long as I have the genus and several common names. (I have a whole rant about the limited usefulness of Linnaean taxonomic species in many cases compared to folk taxonomies, but I will save it for later, I think.) Anyone who wants to join in - adding to or correcting mine, or with posts of your own - is more than welcome to, especially since mine will, by default, be focused on American and Western European common names.Since it's late-early-spring where I live, I'll be starting with early spring flowering weeds; the hard late winter this year has everything starting up several weeks later than usual, so the first weeds are only just now blooming.
Fecundity Project 1: Speedwell (Veronica sp.)
Photograph taken noon, March 14 2010, Glen Burnie, MD
This is almost certainly Veronica persica, sometimes called bird's-eye or winter speedwell, but could be V. agrestis or V. arvensis or several others of the early-blooming weedy speedwells. The speedwells (all of genus Veronica) are a large group of plants, all of which have small, four-petaled blue, purple, or white flowers, but they vary greatly otherwise. Some of the larger, showier species, which have their flowers on tall spikes of inflorescence, are decorative garden plants, though none of the flowers are durable when cut. The large water speedwells (called brooklimes in America) are sometimes used as cooked edible greens, potherbs in edible wild plants jargon; they often grow near watercress, and supposedly go very well with it in terms of flavor.
The speedwell I've pictured here is neither of those: it's one of several that mostly grow as small weeds in mowed or cropped lawns and other disturbed areas: but keep in mind that many weedy herbs will grow into an entirely different shape in a mowed lawn than an open meadow, so the same tiny plant I've pictured here is often said in field guides to grow to a foot tall or more. Similarly, plants often have different-looking foliage for their first few weeks; some very early flowers bloom before they have mature leaves. The speedwells can have widely varying foliage anyway, but the distinctive feature of all the lawn-weed speedwells I know in this area are the half-centimeter or less diameter, periwinkle blue, simple flowers, with a paler center and darker lines radiating out; a common name for them is Birdseye, which is a fairly good descriptive of the way the tiny blue flowers peek out of groundcover.
Many of the speedwells also have a history of use as medicinal herbs, at least in Europe; my book of traditional Pennsylvania Dutch herbology gives the German common name ehrenpreis, said to derive from "Honor and Price" due to its value in medicine, and lists uses as a diuretic, and for asthma, catarrh, coughs, to promote menstruation, and for skin diseases. The medicinal part is the juices of the leaves; Speedwell was used medicinally as a gargle, in an herbal tea or infusion, and with a topical application of the juices. I have not tested any of these uses, and as far as I know, none of them have any substantial scientific testing either way, but all Veronica plants are known to be high in vitamin C (which could explain the use as a kind of broad-spectrum medicinal), and none are poisonous in moderation.
The scientific name Veronica comes from a European common name that predates Linnaean classification, and is still sometimes used as a common name in English. It's said to derive from the fact that the dark markings in the flowers can sometimes resemble a human face, so they were called for St. Veronica's veil which bears the print of the face of Christ. (As a child I called them "tiny pansy" for the same reason - pansies are also sometimes said to look like a face.) The most widely used common name, speedwell, is given two different derivations: the first is a badly-attested supposedly Irish myth that pinning a sprig of speedwell brings good luck on journeys. The second is an entirely unattested theory that it was named for the plant's ability to quickly spread over disturbed areas and into new ones. (I can't help but theorize, myself, that it could be based on the medicinal use; perhaps it was a medieval version of Airborne...) Speedwell is one of those plants that probably originated somewhere in Eurasia but followed the human diaspora so quickly and widely that it grows nearly world-wide and it's difficult to say where it's native and where it isn't.
The most famous non-plant Speedwell is the Mayflower's sister ship of that name, one of the two ships that was supposed to bring the first European settlers to the Massachussetts colony in the 17th century. However, the Speedwell's crew sabotaged her twice in order to get out of their year-long contract, so she never actually made it across. This seems like a very suitable fate for a ship named after a highly opportunistic weed. :D
More pictures of speedwells
*cheers you on wildly*
Date: 2010-03-14 09:08 pm (UTC)Re: *cheers you on wildly*
Date: 2010-03-14 11:10 pm (UTC)