Verbena officinalis

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Family Verbenaceae

Taxonomy: Verbena officinalis L.

Synonyms: none listed in the APC 2026-07-30

Distribution (APC): WA (naturalised), SA (naturalised), Qld (naturalised), NSW (naturalised), Vic (native and naturalised), Tas (naturalised)

Profiles: APC, Flora of Australia, ALA, iNaturalist, NSW Flora, SA eFlora, Vic Flora, Florabase, ATRP

Traits

Top source datasets: ABRS_2022 (3), ABRS_2023 (14), Hughes_1992 (1), Leishman_1992 (7), Munroe_2019 (1), NHNSW_2014_2 (3), NHNSW_2022 (3), NHNSW_2023 (13), RBGV_2022 (2), RBGV_2023 (11), SAH_2022 (4), SAH_2023 (16), Sjostrom_2006 (2), WAH_2022_2 (3), WAH_2023_2 (1), Wenk_2022 (2), Wenk_2023 (1), White_2020 (19). See below for a full list of sources.
Summary: AusTraits contains 42 traits from 106 records in 18 datasets.

Traits by category (click to expand). For categorical traits, the values are listed. For numerical traits, the mean and range are shown.

fire response

resprouting_capacity (categorical): fire_killed (1) [sources: White_2020]

flower morphology

flower_colour (categorical): pink (1) [sources: NHNSW_2014_2]
sex_type (categorical): hermaphrodite (1) [sources: Sjostrom_2006]

fruit morphology

fruit_length (numerical): 2 mm (1.5-3.5 mm) [sources: ABRS_2023; RBGV_2023; SAH_2023]
fruit_type (categorical): mericarp (4) [sources: ABRS_2023; NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023; SAH_2023]
fruit_dehiscence (categorical): dehiscent (1) [sources: Sjostrom_2006]
fruit_colour (categorical): brown (1); red (1) [sources: SAH_2023]

leaf morphology

leaf_area (numerical): 200 mm2 (200-200 mm2) [sources: Leishman_1992]
leaf_length (numerical): 50 mm (20-100 mm) [sources: ABRS_2023; NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023; SAH_2023]
leaf_width (numerical): 20.88 mm (5-40 mm) [sources: ABRS_2023; NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023; SAH_2023]
leaf_shape (categorical): lanceolate (1); narrowly_ovate (2); oblong (3); obtriangular (3); ovate (3) [sources: ABRS_2023; NHNSW_2023; SAH_2023]
leaf_base_shape (categorical): acute (2); attenuate (1) [sources: ABRS_2023; NHNSW_2023; SAH_2023]
leaf_margin (categorical): entire (3); toothed (3) [sources: ABRS_2023; NHNSW_2023; SAH_2023]
leaf_lobation (categorical): lobed (4); unlobed (2) [sources: ABRS_2023; NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023; SAH_2023]
leaf_compoundness (categorical): simple (1) [sources: NHNSW_2014_2]
leaf_phyllotaxis (categorical): opposite (1); whorled (1) [sources: NHNSW_2023; SAH_2023]
plant_photosynthetic_organ (categorical): leaf (4) [sources: ABRS_2023; NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023; SAH_2023]

life history

photosynthetic_pathway (categorical): c3 (2) [sources: Munroe_2019; White_2020]
plant_growth_form (categorical): herb (9) [sources: ABRS_2022; Hughes_1992; Leishman_1992; NHNSW_2022; RBGV_2022; SAH_2022; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2022; White_2020]
life_history (categorical): perennial (5) [sources: ABRS_2022; Leishman_1992; NHNSW_2022; SAH_2022; Wenk_2023]
woodiness_detailed (categorical): herbaceous (6) [sources: ABRS_2022; NHNSW_2022; RBGV_2022; SAH_2022; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2022]
stem_growth_habit (categorical): erect (2) [sources: SAH_2022; WAH_2022_2]
nitrogen_fixing (categorical): non_nitrogen_fixer (1) [sources: White_2020]
parasitic (categorical): not_parasitic (1) [sources: White_2020]
pollination_syndrome (categorical): insect (1) [sources: White_2020]
dispersal_syndrome (categorical): epizoochory (1) [sources: White_2020]
dispersers (categorical): mammals (1) [sources: White_2020]
flowering_time (categorical): nnnnnnnnyyyy (1); ynnnnnnnnyyy (1) [sources: NHNSW_2014_2; White_2020]
seedbank_longevity_class (categorical): persistent (1) [sources: White_2020]
vegetative_reproduction_ability (categorical): not_vegetative (1) [sources: White_2020]
storage_organ (categorical): no_storage_organ (1) [sources: Leishman_1992]

seed morphology

seed_dry_mass (numerical): 0.41 mg (0.41-0.41 mg) [sources: Leishman_1992]

whole plant morphology

plant_height (numerical): 0.68 m (0.3-1 m) [sources: ABRS_2023; Leishman_1992; NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023; SAH_2023; WAH_2023_2]
plant_physical_defence_structures (categorical): absent (1) [sources: White_2020]

Sources

dataset_id	n_traits	n_records	reference
White_2020	19	19	M. White, S. Sinclair, and D. Frood. Victorian Vital Attributes Database. database. Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, Victoria, 2020.
SAH_2023	12	16	S. H. of South Australia. eFlora of SA, Electronic Flora of South Australia. accessed on 6 May, 2022.. 2022. url: http://www.flora.sa.gov.au/.
ABRS_2023	10	14	Australian Biological Resources Study. Flora of Australia, Australian Biological Resources Study, Canberra.. accessed on 14 September, 2022.. 2023. url: http://www.ausflora.org.au.
NHNSW_2023	10	13	N. H. of New South Wales. The Plant Information Network System of The Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust Version 2.0.. accessed on 6 May, 2022.. 2023. url: https://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/.
RBGV_2023	7	11	VicFlora. Flora of Victoria, Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria. accessed on 6 May, 2022.. 2023. url: https://vicflora.rbg.vic.gov.au/.
Leishman_1992	7	7	M. R. Leishman and M. Westoby. “Classifying plants into groups on the basis of associations of individual traits-Evidence from Australian semi-arid woodlands”. Journal of Ecology 80 (1992), pp. 417-424. doi: 10.2307/2260687.
SAH_2022	4	4	S. H. of South Australia. eFlora of SA, Electronic Flora of South Australia. accessed on 6 May, 2022.. 2022. url: http://www.flora.sa.gov.au/.
ABRS_2022	3	3	Australian Biological Resources Study. Flora of Australia, Australian Biological Resources Study, Canberra.. accessed on 14 September, 2022.. 2022. url: http://www.ausflora.org.au.
NHNSW_2014_2	3	3	Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney. PLantNET: NSW flora online. 2014. url: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/.
NHNSW_2022	3	3	N. H. of New South Wales. The Plant Information Network System of The Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust Version 2.0.. accessed on 6 May, 2022.. 2022. url: https://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/.
WAH_2022_2	3	3	Western Australian Herbarium. Florabase—the Western Australian Flora.. accessed on 14 September, 2022.. 2022. url: https://florabase.dpaw.wa.gov.au/.
RBGV_2022	2	2	VicFlora. Flora of Victoria, Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria. accessed on 6 May, 2022.. 2022. url: https://vicflora.rbg.vic.gov.au/.
Sjostrom_2006	2	2	A. Sjöström and C. L. Gross. “Life-history characters and phylogeny are correlated with extinction risk in the Australian angiosperms”. Journal of Biogeography 33.2 (2006), pp. 271-290. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2699.2005.01393.x.
Wenk_2022	2	2	E. Wenk. “Unpublished data: Australian plant growth forms dataset”. 2022.
Hughes_1992	1	1	L. Hughes and B. Rice. “Unpublished data: Traits data for 643 species, Macquarie University”. 1992.
Munroe_2019	1	1	S. E. M. Munroe, F. A. McInerney, J. Andrae, N. Welti, G. R. Guerin, E. Leitch, T. Hall, S. Szarvas, R. Atkins, S. Caddy-Retalic, and B. Sparrow. “The Photosynthetic Pathways of Plant Species Surveyed in Australia's National Terrestrial Monitoring Network”. Scientific Data 8 (2021), p. 97. doi: 10.1038/s41597-021-00877-z.
WAH_2023_2	1	1	Western Australian Herbarium. Florabase—the Western Australian Flora.. accessed on 14 September, 2022.. 2023. url: https://florabase.dpaw.wa.gov.au/.
Wenk_2023	1	1	E. Wenk. “Unpublished data: Australian plant life history dataset, University of New South Wales, Sydney”. 2023.