Veronica wormskjoldii

American alpine speedwell

Family: Plantaginaceae · Type: perennial · Native

American alpine speedwell is a California native perennial found in the Klamath Ranges, Cascade Range, Sierra Nevada, and North Coast Ranges in moist alpine meadows, streambanks, and lakeshores at elevations of 1,500 to 3,500 meters. Flowering from June to August, this plant produces deep blue flowers 6 to 10 millimeters long in dense terminal racemes. Growing with erect stems 10 to 25 centimeters tall that root at the nodes and are long-wavy-hairy, it spreads through underground rhizomes. Its leaves are sessile, 20 to 40 millimeters long, lanceolate to elliptic with entire to slightly toothed edges and acute to obtuse tips. The fruit is 4.5 to 6.5 millimeters long, slightly longer than wide with a tiny notch.

Habitat: Moist alpine meadows, streambanks, lakeshores

Bloom period: Jun-Aug

Elevation: 1500-3500 m

Bioregions: KR, CaR, SN, MP

California counties: Mono, Nevada, Inyo, Modoc, El Dorado, Fresno, Mariposa, Riverside, Sierra, Siskiyou, Tulare, Tuolumne, Shasta, Plumas, Lassen, Alpine, Madera, Trinity, Placer, Humboldt, Mendocino

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