Angiosperms (Flowering Plants) • Earth.com

Dakota mock vervain

(Glandularia bipinnatifida)

galery
en

Description

Glandularia bipinnatifida, commonly called Dakota mock vervain, prairie verbena, and Moradilla, among others, is a species of flowering plant in the verbena family (Verbenaceae). It is native to the North America, where its natural range extends from the United States south to Nicaragua. In the United States, it is found primarily in the Great Plains and in the Blackland Prairies of the Southeast. Elsewhere in North America, it is occasionally found as a non-persisting waif. Its natural habitat is in open grassy areas, including prairies. It can be found in both high-quality natural communities and in disturbed areas. Glandularia bipinnatifida is an herbaceous or semi-woody perennial. It produces pink or purple flowers primarily in the spring, but can bloom anytime throughout the growing season. Its leaves are finely dissected, into segments that are 1–4 mm wide. It can be distinguished from the similar-looking Glandularia pulchella by its long flower bracts, and wider leaf segments. Glandularia, common name mock vervain or mock verbena, is a genus of annual and perennial herbaceous flowering plants in the family Verbenaceae. They are native to the Americas. These plants, like their relatives the vervains (verbenas), usually have showy five-petalled flowers in shades of pink, purple and blue. Glandularia species are closely related to the true vervains and sometimes still included with them in Verbena. Horizontal chloroplast transfer occurred at least twice and possibly three times between these genera, which are otherwise too distinct to warrant unification. Somehow, chloroplasts from V. orcuttiana, swamp verbena (V. hastata) or a close relative of these had admixed into the G. bipinnatifida genome. Although hybridization runs rampant in the true and mock vervains – the ancestors of the well-known garden vervain are quite obscure – it does not seem to have been the cause of the cross-species gene transfer.

Taxonomic tree:

Domain:
Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Magnoliophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order:Lamiales
Family:Verbenaceae
Genus:Glandularia
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