General:
Perennial herb from a creeping rhizome; stems ascending, 10-30 cm tall/long, often decumbent or creeping at the base and producing prostrate, nodally rooting branches, otherwise simple, finely and closely short-hairy, or smooth.

Leaves:
Opposite, often short-stalked below, unstalked above, elliptic to broadly egg-shaped, 1-2.5 cm long, obscurely blunt-toothed to entire, smooth or nearly so.

Flowers:
Inflorescence a terminal bracted raceme, at first compact then elongating and lax, of several to many (to 30) stalked flowers, the stalks finely short-hairy and often also glandular, shorter than the bracts, at least the upper bracts alternate, the lower gradually passing into leaves; corollas bright blue or pale blue to white with darker blue lines, saucer-shaped, 4-8 mm across, irregularly 4-lobed, the lobes much longer than the short tube, the upper lobe largest, the lowest lobe narrower than the others; calyces short-hairy or glandular-hairy, deeply 4-lobed, the lobes oblong to egg-shaped, 2-4 mm long, slightly unequal; styles short, 2-3.5 mm long; stamens 2, exserted, the filaments 1-4 mm long.

Fruits:
Capsules, 3-4 mm long, flattened, heart-shaped, wider than long, distinctly notched at the tip, thinly glandular-hairy; seeds numerous, about 0.7 mm long.

Notes:
Two varieties occur in BC

1. Axis of inflorescence and flower stalks minutely incurved-hairy, non-glandular; corollas to 5 mm wide; introduced in SW and E BC..................... var. serpyllifolia

1. Axis of inflorescence and flower stalks finely minute-hairy but also with spreading glandular hairs; corollas to 8 mm wide; native throughout BC..................... var. humifusa (Dickson) Vahl

Source:  The Illustrated Flora of British Columbia

If more than one illustration is available for a species (e.g., separate illustrations were provided for two subspecies) then links to the separate images will be provided below. Note that individual subspecies or varietal illustrations are not always available.

Illustration Source:  The Illustrated Flora of British Columbia

Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Veronica serpyllifolia subsp. humifusa (Dicks.) Syme