Plant of the Week 03/03/2008: Tampa mock vervain (Glandularia tampensis)

Plant of the Week 03/03/2008

Tampa mock vervain (Glandularia tampensis)

Glandularia tampensis (Nash) Small

Photographed by: Chelsie Vandaveer
Credits: Tampa mock vervain photographed in Chelsie's butterfly garden.
Other Information: Olympus C-8080wz

The mock vervains (Glandularia species) are native to the New World. Their cousins the ‘true’ vervains (Verbena species) are found across the Americas and Europe to southern Asia. The two genera are very similar; Glandularia were once considered a subtribe of Verbena. But the mock vervains have a peculiarity—an oddly disjunct range. Nineteen or so species are found from Guatemala northward (12 species native to the U.S.); the remainder are native to southern South America.

Tampa mock vervain (Glandularia tampensis (Nash) Small) is a short-lived perennial thriving in open mesic (moist) woodlands. It blooms in late winter and early spring. Although the inflorescence appears to be a corymb, the salverform flowers are borne on an indeterminate raceme—each flower arises from the central stem. And as long as blooming conditions are good, the inflorescence continues to produce new flowers at the tip.

Tampa mock vervain is endemic (native only) to about 12 coastal counties of central Florida. And it is endangered. Housing and business development have encroached into the mesic woodlands where this delightful plant resides. A mere 24 known populations remain in the wild.

(Compiled from: Hortus Third, Staff L.H. Bailey Hortorium, New York State College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Cornell University, Macmillan, NY, 1976; A-Z Encyclopedia of Garden Plants, C. Brickell and J.D. Zuk, eds., American Horticultural Society, DK Publishing, NY, 1997 and personal experience)