Veronica polita
species of plant
Veronica polita, the grey field-speedwell is a species of flowering plant in the Plantaginaceae (Plantain) family. It is native to Europe, southwestern Asia, North Africa, the Arabian Peninsula and a few nearby countries, and has been introduced to many countries worldwide particularly as a weed of cultivation.
Description
A sprawling, blue-flowered annual speedwell, with somewhat dull green, toothed leaves, broadest at the base. The flowers are smallish (4-8(12) mm diam), usually bold blue (though sometimes with a whitened lowermost part), and grow solitary on stalks emerging from the stem at the leaf stalk, the longest ones not clearly exceeding the leaves; they mature to form a fruit capsule whose two lobes are parallel, clothed with long and short hairs. The lower leaves are non-elongated in appearance, whilst the upper leaves are elongated.
Similar species include Veronica agrestis (with fruit lacking short hairs, and leaves fresh green, the lowermost elongated) and Veronica persica (with flower stalks often much longer than the leaves, and the lobes of the fruit diverging like a 'V').
Variants - P D Sell distinguishes var. polita with flowers 5–8 mm diameter, and var. grandiflora flowers 8–12 mm diam.
Taxonomy
Veronica polita was given its scientific name in 1819 by Elias Magnus Fries.
The public source identifies “Veronica polita” as species of plant. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Veronica, polita and species.
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Stable identifiers, scientific names and standards terminology offer the best bridge between this overview and specialist evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 30, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q159137. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1819.
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This entry incorporates text from “Veronica polita” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.