Veronica arvensis

Corn speedwell

Family: Plantaginaceae · Type: annual · Not Native

Corn speedwell is a naturalized annual found in the Klamath Ranges, northern coastal California, Sierra Nevada foothills, Central Valley, San Francisco Bay Area, southern coastal ranges, Transverse Ranges, Peninsular Ranges, Modoc Plateau, and desert regions in meadow habitats at elevations below 1,500 meters. Flowering from April to July, this plant produces blue to violet flowers in small racemes with delicate petals around 2 to 3 millimeters long. Growing with prostrate to erect stems 5 to 40 centimeters tall, it spreads in branching clusters with fibrous roots. Its leaves are triangular to ovate, 2 to 15 millimeters long, with crenate or serrate edges and bases ranging from cordate to truncate. The fruit is flat and ciliate, measuring 3 to 4 millimeters with a small notch, containing multiple tiny smooth seeds.

Habitat: Meadows

Bloom period: Apr-Jul

Elevation: < 1500 m

Bioregions: KR, NCoR, SNF, GV, SnFrB, SCoRO, TR, PR, MP, D

California counties: Lassen, Tulare, Calaveras, Alameda, San Diego, El Dorado, Monterey, Fresno, Los Angeles, Riverside, Orange, San Bernardino, Trinity, San Francisco, Lake, Santa Clara, Humboldt, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Placer, Sonoma, Sacramento, Shasta, Merced, Butte, Mendocino, Tehama, Yuba, Modoc, Ventura, Napa, Madera, Kern, Santa Cruz, Plumas, Del Norte, San Mateo, Mariposa, Yolo, Stanislaus

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.