#Verbenaceae

[faguscarolinensis]

Duranta erecta / Skyflower at the Sarah P. Duke Gardens at Duke University in Durham, NC

[wildflowers-of-southern-ontario]

Blue Vervain Verbena hastata Verbenaceae

Photograph taken on August 28, 2022, at High Park, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

[oliviarosaline]

Lanceleaf Frogfruit

Phyla lanceolata

This perennial species in the verbena family is native to much of the United States and Mexico. It's usually found growing in disturbed wetlands, ditches, or yards and provides nectar for many beneficial insects when it blooms during summer.

The plant pictured was in disturbed bottomland woods near Butler Lake and the Meramec River in southern St. Louis County, Missouri, USA

June 20th, 2023

Olivia R. Myers

@oliviarosaline

[syngoniums]

Purple part 6: Small-flowered milkvetch (Astragalus nuttallianus), gray vervain (Verbena canescens), prairie verbena (Glandularia tenuisecta) and false dayflower (Tinantia anomala).

[rattyexplores]

More Vervain

Verbena bonariensis

24/03/23 - NSW, Dapto

[drhoz]

#2170 - Verbena bonariensis - Purpletop

'Sacred Bough from Buenos Aires'. The common name for the genus, vervain, comes from the Celtic name, ‘ferfain'. AKA purpletop vervain, clustertop vervain, Argentinian vervain, tall verbena or pretty verbena. Synonyms include Verbena bonariensis f. albiflora, Verbena bonariensis var. conglomerata , Verbena bonariensis var. longibracteata, Verbena bonariensis f. robustior, Verbena elongata, Verbena inamoena, Verbena intercedens, and Verbena trichotoma. Originally described by Linnaeus.

Another escaped ornamental, originating in the tropics of South America. Potentially an invasive species and noxious weed in favorable habitats, because it self-seeds at the drop of a hat. Already naturalized in a number of southern United States and Hawaii, tropical and southern Africa, temperate Asia, Australia, New Zealand, the Azores and Madeira archipelagos, the Canary Islands, Cape Verde, the West Indies, and the Mascarene Islands. Also on the invasive species watchlist for Washington state, and already considered a weed in Fiji, New Guinea and other South Pacific islands.

Vervains have a pretty crowded historical use in European religious ritual and folklore. Pliny the Elder, for example, notes that Verbena was used on the alters of Jupiter, and that

"the Magi especially make the maddest statements about the plant: that [among other things] a circle must be drawn with iron round the plant".

In a number of Central and Eastern European languages that association wth iron is rettained in the common name - for example the Dutch IJzerhard ("iron-hard"), German Echtes Eisenkraut ("true ironherb"), and Hungarian vasfű ("iron grass"). Early Christian folklore stated that V. officinalis was used to staunch Jesus' wounds and the plant was consequently called "holy herb" or "Devil's bane".

Marrambidya Wetlands, Wagga Wagga, NSW

[lalitrajsingh]

प्रियंगु I Callicarpa_macrophylla I Verbenaceae Analgesic Antipyretic Antitumor Diabetes Leucorrhoea

Safer-Effective-Better-Remedy

#प्रियंगु #Callicarpa_macrophylla #Verbenaceae #Analgesic #Antipyretic #Antitumor #Diabetes #Leucorrhoea #organic #fertilizer #nitrogen #CVDs #inflmmation #gastric_disturbances #hemorrhage #pitta_disorders #phosphorus #skincare #antiaging #antiwrinkle #biomedicine #diabetes #beta-carotene #soap ##healthylifestyle #money #flavonoids #antioxidants #aminoe_acids #proteins #diy #healthylifestyle…

[falseandrealultravival]

Stir-fried Smell tree (cooking)

The leaves of Kusagi (Smell tree) in the garden are collected and boiled in plant ash. Leave it for half a day and fry it with sesame oil, sugar and soy sauce. Japanese pepper seasoning. Although it is bitter, it is said that it has been used as food in Zen temples since long ago. It used to belong to the Verbenaceae family, but now belongs to the Labiatae family. (APG classification system) It is highly fertile and breeds disgustingly well. Since it can be taken in large quantities, it is effective as emergency food.

This time, stir-fried with yellow melon.

クサギの炒め物（料理）

庭のKusaki(Smell tree)の葉を採取して、草木灰で煮る。半日置いて、ごま油、砂糖、醤油で炒め物にする。苦いけど、むかしから禅の寺では食糧にしていたという。もとクマツヅラ科だったが、今ではシソ科とされている。（APG分類体系）繁殖力旺盛で、憎たらしいくらいに良く繁殖する。量が取れるので、救荒食糧として有効ということだ。

今回は、黄色瓜と炒めたもの。

(2023.06.17)

Rei Morishita

[jo526]

Clerodendrum thomsonae Balf. por Man-wah Leung

[deathtek]

8/16/22

[pulim-v]

Important OC announcement

Rowan's surname has been changed from Verbenaceae to Lantana

[faguscarolinensis]

Glandularia aristigera / Moss Verbena at the Sarah P. Duke Gardens at Duke University in Durham, NC

[pulim-gallery]

FOGGY GLASSES AND CORRODED COPPER PROFILES

[odivanvelasco]

Boa Semente de Planta Nasce Rápido

Boa Semente de Planta Nasce Rápido. Agora, as sementes do Cerrado são bem difíceis. Esta, entretanto, é uma exceção. Informações Botânicas Estou falando da Lippia Lupulina, da Família Verbenaceae, que contém “36 gêneros e cerca de 1.000 espécies de distribuição pantropical, sendo que no Brasil ocorrem 17 gêneros e 250 espécies”. Então, esta Família tem muitas plantas com propriedades…

[libraryofmoths]

Moth of the Week

African Death’s-Head Hawkmoth

Acherontia atropos

The African death's-head hawkmoth is part of the family Sphingidae and is the most widely recognized of the three species of Death’s-Head Hawkmoth. The species was described in 1758 by Carl Linnaeus. Its common name comes from the skull shape on the back of its thorax. It’s binomial name comes from the river Acheron in Greece, which was believed to lead to the Underworld, and the Greek goddess Atropos respectively.

Description The forewings are black/brown with mottled shades of brown while the hindwings are buff orange with two black/brown stripes that curve with the edge of the hindwing. The head and thorax are the same black/brown color as the forewings interrupted by the brown skull on the back of the thorax. The abdomen is the same buff color as the hindwings with similar stripes of the same color. There is also a single stripe down the center of the abdomen called the “dorsal stripe.”

Average Wingspan: 13 cm (5 in)

Females are large than males with a rounded abdomen tip and larger, thicker antennae

Males have a pointed abdomen tip

Diet and Habitat Larva of this species mainly eat the leaves of potato plants which have alkaloids. The larva accumulate these toxins to become unpalatable to predators. Adults eat the nectar of flowers and stolen honey from the beehives of the Western Honey Bee. They are able to mimic the scent of bees and steal the honey undetected. They use their proboscis, a tube used to drink nectar and honey, to break the honey comb.

Their ranges stretches from the Middle East, as far south as the southern tip of Africa, as far north as southern Great Britain, as far east as India and western Saudi Arabia, and as far west as the Canary Islands and Azores. It is known to move into western Eurasia, but a majority do not survive the winter.

Mating This moth has multiple generations per year. In Africa, the broods are continuous. In the northern range, the larva overwinter in the pupal stage. Eggs are laid singly on the underside of species in mainly Solanaceae but also Physalis, Verbenaceae, Cannabaceae, Oleaceae, Pedaliaceae and others.

Predators This moth can emit a special squeak noise by sucking in air to vibrate a flap in its mouth and throat. The purpose of this squeak is unclear, but the two hypotheses are it is to scare away predators or to mimic the sound of a queen bee makes for the workers to stop moving to easier raid beehives for honey. They are also immune to bee venom and can mimic the scent of bees.

Fun Fact This moth has appeared many times in pop culture as symbols of death and evil:

It appeared in The Hireling Shepherd, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Un Chien Andalou, the promotional marquee posters for The Silence of the Lambs, in the music video to Massive Attack's single, "Butterfly Caught,” and on the American edition's cover of José Saramago's novel Death with Interruptions.

It is mentioned in Susan Hill's Gothic horror novel I'm the King of the Castle and John Keats’s "Ode to Melancholy.”

It is referred to in The Mothman Prophecies.

Finally, the moth is used as a calling card by the serial killer Buffalo Bill. However, in the movie script they are referred to under a different species of death’s-head hawkmoths.

(Source: Wikipedia, Simple English Wikipedia)

[rattyexplores]

Vervain

Unidentified, genus Verbena

24/03/23 - NSW, Dapto