Veronica wormskjoldii : Alpine Speedwell

Scientific Name:

Kingdom: Plantae

Division:

• Tracheophyta (vascular)
• Spermatophyta (seed bearing)
Angiospermae (enclosed seed)

Class: Dicoteldonae (two seed-leaves)

Family: Scrophulariaceae (Figwort Family)

Genera: Veronica (Speedwell) (Honouring St. Veronica)

Species: wormskjoldii (Morten Wormskjold, 1783-1845, a Dutch lieutenant who collected in Kamchatka, Kodiak, and Sitka)

Synonym(s): V. alpina

English Name(s):

Alpine Speedwell, Alpine Veronica

First Nation Names:

Structure:

• Plants small, herbaceous (not woody).
• From a rhizome (rootstock).
• Stems simple (unbranched), erect or decumbent (horizontal), 3-40cm long, villous (long hairs).

Leaves:

• Cauline (on stem), mostly opposite.
• 1.7-4.0cm long.
• Sessile (stalkless) or subsessile.
• Ovate to oval or oblong in shape.
• Margins entire (smooth), to crenate (round toothed).

Reproductive Parts:

• Inflorescence (flower cluster) a terminal (at top) capitate (headlike), raceme, elongating in fruit.
• Flowers perfect (bisexual), irregular in symetry.
• Calyx (sepals) 2.5-7.0mm long, pubescent (hairy) with glandular and nonglandular multicellular hairs.
• Corolla (petals) 5-11mm wide, blue to violet.
• Stamens (male parts) 2, anther sacs unequal.

Seed:

• Fruit is a capsule.
• Seed capsules longer than wide, obtuse or notched at the tip.
• Seeds numerous, small, bright yellow.

Not to Be Confused With:

Physiology:

Life Cycle:

• Perennial

Seasonal Cycle:

• Plant deciduous (dieing back) to rhizome (rootstock).
• In bloom in mid-July.

Animal Uses:

Habitat:

• Alpine meadows and heathlands
• Moist to dry meadows and mossy places along brooks in tundra and heathlands.

Modern:

Industrial:

Medicinal:

• Some 20 species of Veronica have been employed as drugs.

Food:

Traditional Gwich'in:

Folklore:

Industrial:

Medicinal:

Food:

Traditional Other:

Folklore:

• A shepherd is said to have been the first to discover the medicinal properties of Veronica after watching a dear heal itself with this plant.
• In the Victorian Language of Flowers Veronica symbolizes fidelity and resemblance.

Industrial:

Medicinal:

• Plants were said to increase urine flow and cleanse toxins from the system.
• Used to clear gravel and stones from the kidneys.

Food: