[Verbena jamaicensis L.]
(nat) Jamaica vervain, owl, ol
Low, usually spreading annual or perennial herbs 6-12 dm tall, sometimes somewhat woody toward base, often purplish throughout; stems dichotomously branched, sparsely pubescent or glabrate, nodes usually sparsely pilose. Leaves often bluish or grayish when fresh, alternate or opposite, somewhat fleshy, oblong to elliptic or ovate, 2-9(-12) cm long, 1.5-4 cm wide, upper surface glabrate, lower surface glabrous to strigose or strigillose on the veins and sometimes margins or sparsely hispidu-lous, margins serrate, the teeth angled forward, petioles 0.3-3.5 cm long. Spikes stout and stiff, 15-50 cm long, glabrous, rachis stout and firm, up to 7 mm in diameter, the furrows conspicuously narrower than the rachis, bracts lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, 5-8 mm long; calyx completely embedded in rachis furrows, somewhat compressed, ca. 5 mm long, 2 of the teeth very reduced; corolla usually pale blue, 8—11 mm long. [2n = 160.] Native to tropical and subtropical areas of the New World, now widely naturalized and nearly pantropical; in Hawai‘i naturalized in open, dry, disturbed areas, 0-490 m, on Midway Atoll, Kaua‘i, 0‘ahu, Lana‘i, Maui, Kaho‘olawe, and Hawaii. First collected on Lana‘i in 1913 (Munro 288, BISH).—Plate 194.
Stachytarpheta jamaicensis hybridizes with S. urticifolia [S. x intercedens Danser]. Hybrids are known from Kolekole Pass, Wai‘anae Mountains, and Waima- nalo, 0‘ahu, but they probably occur anywhere the 2 species grow together. In general the hybrids resemble S. jamaicensis more closely than S. urticifolia, but the corollas are darker in color than typical in S. jamaicensis, the habit is more erect, and the leaves are usually more ovate, darker geen, and with more divergent teeth similar to S. urticifolia.