FIELD ID CHARACTERISTICS:
Small whitish-purple flowers on stalks shorter or about as long as the leaves. Leaves directly attached to stem; stems somewhat reclining.
Description: Weakly ascending, low, annual, leafy herb, 10 to 25 cm tall.
Leaves: Opposite leaves in scattered pairs, about 3 cm long and 1 cm wide, obovate, attached directly to the stem, sometimes toothed.
Flowers/Fruit: Small, pale purple or blue flowers, approximately 1 cm long, growing singly from leaf bases on short stalks, shorter than the leaves. Flowers June through September, fruiting soon after.
Habit and Range: A common species in sunny freshwater wet places, such as stream floodplains, bottomlands, ditches, muddy lake and pond shorelines, and wet meadows. Common statewide.
COMMON CONFUSIONS:
Lindernia anagallidea (longstalk false-pimpernel) has flowering stalks much longer than the leaves. Gratiola virginiana (round-fruit hedge-hyssop) also has a similar habit, but fruits are round and its leaves taper to narrow bases.
Click here to view Gratiola virginiana.
Click here to view Lindernia anagallidea.
Link to side-by-side comparisons page
