Veronica triphyllos is a species of flowering plant in the plantain family

Plantaginaceae

Plantaginaceae Juss. or plantain family, are a family of flowering plants in the order Lamiales. The type genus is Plantago L..In older classifications it used to be the only family of the order Plantaginales, but numerous phylogenetic studies, summarized by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group, have...

 known by the common name finger speedwell, or fingered speedwell. It is native to Europe and western Asia, and it can be found elsewhere as an introduced species

Introduced species

An introduced species — or neozoon, alien, exotic, non-indigenous, or non-native species, or simply an introduction, is a species living outside its indigenous or native distributional range, and has arrived in an ecosystem or plant community by human activity, either deliberate or accidental...

, for example, in some parts of the United States. It is an annual herb growing from a taproot

Taproot

A taproot is an enlarged, somewhat straight to tapering plant root that grows vertically downward. It forms a center from which other roots sprout laterally.Plants with taproots are difficult to transplant...

 and producing a hairy, glandular, branching or unbranched stem up to about 20 centimeters in maximum height. The deeply lobed leaves are rarely more than a centimeter in length. The hairy blades are borne in opposite pairs on the stem. The inflorescence

Inflorescence

An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Strictly, it is the part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed and which is accordingly modified...

at the tip of the stem produces deep blue flowers a few millimeters wide.

External links

• Jepson Manual Treatment
• USDA Plants Profile
• GRIN Species Profile
• Washington Burke Museum
• Photo gallery