E-Flora BC: Electronic Atlas of the Flora of British Columbia
Veronica beccabunga L. American speedwell (American brooklime; European speedwell) Plantaginaceae (Mare's-tail family) (Previously in Scrophulariaceae)
General: Perennial amphibious herb from a shallow creeping rhizome, smooth throughout; stems trailing to ascending, 10-70 cm long/tall, rooting at the lower nodes, simple or branched, somewhat fleshy.
Leaves: Opposite, short-stalked, lanceolate to egg-shaped, 1-5 (8) cm long, usually distinctly toothed.
Flowers: Inflorescences several long, open, opposite, stalked racemes arising from the axils of upper leaves, the racemes of 5 to 25 stalked flowers, the flower stalks much longer than the linear bracts; corollas blue, saucer-shaped, 5-10 mm across, irregularly 4-lobed, the lobes much longer than the short tube, the lowest lobe narrower than the others; calyces 2-5 mm long, deeply 4-lobed, the lobes lanceolate to egg-shaped; styles 2-4 mm long, exserted; stamens 2.
Fruits: Capsules, 3-4 mm long, a little wider than long, plump, somewhat globe-shaped, not or scarcely notched at the tip; seeds numerous, flattened, about 0.5 mm long.
Wet ditches, swamps, marshes, and shallow water along margins of streams and lakes in the lowland, steppe and montane zones; common in S BC, infrequent northward; N to AK, YT and NT, E to NF and S to NC, NE, TX, NM, AZ, CA, and MX.
The table below shows the species-specific information calculated from original data (BEC database) provided by the BC Ministry of Forests and Range. (Updated August, 2013)
