The Gray vervain is blooming along Zarzamora Creek. I noticed the square stems of Verbena canescens before I noticed the purple flowers, which are small and easy to overlook. The usual color is pink, I’m told, but the flowers along this stretch of the creek are purple. The "gray" in the common name refers to the foliage.
If you're looking at the scientific name, “canescent” describes a kind of pubescence. It means the plant is covered with short, stiff hairs. V. halei, Texas vervain, is glabrous, meaning smooth.
If you didn’t memorize part of a botany textbook in college but have the Bible stuck in your mind, Gray vervain is like Esau and Texas vervain is like Jacob.
Both species are in the Verbena family, which has 75 genera and 3,000 species and includes the majestic teak trees of Asia and the lantana bushes that are all over the West Side of San Antonio.
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