Family: verbenas (Verbenaceae)
Bloom time: July–September
Size: 30–75 cm
Habitat: pastures, banks, along paths, clearings
Common vervain (Verbena officinalis) can be a perennial or an annual. Its upright, four-angled stem is richly branched in the upper part. On the upright protruding side shoots, late in summer, small, pale purple flowers bloom. These form elongated, spike-like inflorescences covered with glandular hairs. The stem is leafy with opposite, variably shaped leaves. In the lower part the stem leaves are simple and deeply serrated, in the middle the leaves are trilobed or pinnately lobed, the lobes serrated. The leaves are covered with stellate hairs and therefore feel rough to the touch. The corolla has grown into a tube and at the tip expanded into five lobes, 2 to 5 mm long. The calyx has 4 to 5 teeth.
Common vervain grows on nitrogen-rich, moist soils in very sunny locations. It is widespread throughout Slovenia, only absent from the high mountains.
In folk medicine, common vervain is a well-known plant that helps relieve various ailments. It relieves pain, helps with diseases of the lungs, kidneys and spleen, dissolves kidney, urinary and gall stones, helps with inflammation of the gums and eye problems, and increases milk production in nursing mothers.
