Spiked Speedwell

Plants densely white woolly, leaves adaxially sparsely woolly and gray-green. Stems erect or ascending, several and cespitose, 15-40 cm tall, simple. Leaves opposite, sometimes alternate upward; petiole of lower leaves ca. 2 cm, other leaves subsessile; leaf blade oblong to broadly linear, 1.5-3 X 0.3-1.5 cm, base cuneate, margin crenate or entire, apex obtuse to acute. Inflorescences narrowly spicate. Pedicel short. Calyx ca. 2 mm. Corolla blue, blue-purple, or white, 5-7 mm; tube 1.5-2 mm; lobes often reflexed, ovate to ovate-orbicular. Stamens slightly exserted. Ovary and basal portion of style with multicellular glandular hairs. Capsule slightly longer than calyx, hairy. Fl. Jun-Aug. 2n = 68.

N Heilongjiang, N Nei Mongol, N Xinjiang [N Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Mongolia, Russia; Europe].

Steppes, dunes; below 1200 m.

Veronica incana Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 1: 10. 1753; V. xilinensis Y. Z. Zhao.