Veronica beccabunga L., Brooklime

Account Summary

Growth form and preferred habitats

Brooklime is a robust, wintergreen, aquatic perennial readily recognised by its rather thick, fleshy, hairless, purple-brown, hollow, low-growing stems which first creep and root and then ascend, bearing opposite, bluntly rounded, toothed leaves which are shortly stalked. The stalked, rounded leaves are sufficient to distinguish V. beccabunga from the other three water- or marsh-speedwells, V. anagallis-aquatica (Blue Water-speedwell), V. catenata (Pink Water-speedwell) and V. scutellata (Marsh Speedwell) (Garrard & Streeter 1983).

V. beccabunga typically occupies wet, moderately fertile ground around the shallow margins of streams, rivers, ditches and lakes. It is also commonly recorded in winter- or intermittently-flooded marshy grassland and around open flushes and springs with a more or less constant flow of water.

Brooklime appears to thrive in open, disturbed, cattle trampled, somewhat poached waterside situations, perhaps thus avoiding severe competition in more dense vegetation, or at least here being better able to face reduced competitive pressure from taller growing species that are less tolerant than it is of stressful disturbance. The established strategy of the species is categorised as CR, meaning Competitive Ruderal (Grime et al. 1988, 2007). V. beccabunga also tolerates quite deep shade in fen-carr scrub and other wet woodland situations, so it also displays a degree of stress tolerance (Grime et al. 1988, 2007).

V. beccabunga is equally widespread and common on both acidic and calcareous soils, varying in texture from fine muddy silt to gravel in texture. It avoids very infertile soils, including bog peat, due to its low nutrient status and the extreme acidity of such purely organic soils, but it can occur when these acid peats are flushed with suitable oxygen and mineral-enriched ground water. Under suitable growing conditions, straddling the boundary between marsh or mire and the aquatic realm, Brooklime often becomes luxuriant and can form extensive clonal mats across shallow flowing water in streams, ditches and flushes (Preston & Croft 1997).

Flowering reproduction

V. beccabunga flowers freely in most sites it occupies. Erect, lax inflorescences, each of 10-30 flowers, are borne in opposite axillary pairs at leaf nodes from May to September. The bisexual, hermaphrodite, 5-7 mm diameter blue-petalled flowers, on 4-7 mm slender stalks, are unusual in the genus in being protogynous, ie they are female first after they open, the male anthers ripening later. This separation of the sexes in the flowers' maturity is clearly designed to facilitate cross-pollination, the flowers mainly attracting flies, and especially hoverflies (Proctor et al., 1996). However, the flowers remain closed or half-closed if weather conditions are unfavourable for insect flight and, in these circumstances, they then readily self-pollinate (Knuth 1906-1909; Clapham et al. 1962). Plants set many seeds which germinate readily and a short- or long-term persistent seed bank also develops in the soil (Preston & Croft 1997; Thompson et al. 1997).

Reproduction and dispersal is both vegetative, by means of stem fragmentation, and also by seed. The seeds are not buoyant, but their seed-coat has a mucilaginous gel layer that becomes adhesive when wet, so they are effectively dispersed by birds and other wetland animals to which they attach (Ridley 1930), making them perfectly capable of reaching land-locked lakelets.

Vegetative reproduction

Brooklime plants are shallow rooted and entire colonies are readily swept away in flood waters: broken stem fragments also root readily, so that a combination of these two properties enables the species to spread vegetatively and increase distribution within the water body (Haslam 1978; Grime et al. 1988, 2007).

Fermanagh occurrence

As the second ranking Veronica species to V. chamaedrys (Germander Speedwell) in Fermanagh both in terms of frequency and distribution, Brooklime is a very abundant perennial in the VC, as is likewise the case elsewhere in B & I, its occurrence far outstripping that of the other aquatic species in the genus (Preston & Croft 1997). V. beccabunga is widespread and commonly found in 390 Fermanagh tetrads, 73.9% of those in the VC. It is absent only from the highest ground and the most acidic bogs (ie pH below about 5.0).

British and Irish occurrence

V. beccabunga is common, widely distributed and locally abundant throughout most of B & I except for the C Highlands and N & W Scotland where it is rare and ± restricted to the coast. The New Atlas hectad map indicates that in the westernmost parts of Ireland, it also becomes somewhat less frequent. Having said this, there does not appear to be any evidence from the New Atlas survey of a decline, at least when measured at the hectad scale. The only probable area where decline is happening at present is in built-up and developing urban situations such as around major cities (Preston & Croft 1997; A. Horsfall, in: Preston et al. 2002).

European and world occurrence

V. beccabunga belongs to the Eurosiberian temperate phytogeographical element and is widespread in temperate areas of Europe and adjacent parts of W Asia: it is also native in N Africa (Morocco, Egypt and Ethiopia). In Europe, it extends as far north as 65°N (although absent from Iceland) and southwards from there to S Spain and Portugal, and eastwards through the Mediterranean basin to Sicily, Greece, the Balkans, the Middle East and into W Asia and the W Himalaya (Hultén & Fries 1986, Map 1649).

It is introduced and naturalised in N & S America and parts of Africa, probably transported there in ships' ballast. V. beccabunga is replaced by the closely related V. Americana (Raf.) Schwein in temperate N America and parts of Pacific E Asia, the two species taken together having a discontinuous circumpolar distribution (Hultén 1974, pp. 172 & 378, Map 164).

Names

The Latin specific epithet 'beccabunga' is possibly derived from the German name, 'Bach-bunge', 'bach' meaning a 'brook' and 'bunge' a 'bunch'. The Old Norse 'bekkr' meaning 'brook' may also be involved. An alternative origin is from the Flemish, 'beckpunge', meaning 'mouth smart', alluding to the pungency of the leaves, which were once eaten in salads like cress (Grieve 1931).

The English common name 'Brooklime' is thought to have evolved from the Old English 'brōc bleomoc' meaning 'brook' and the name of a plant equivalent to the Old Norse 'bung' which features as a word element in the scientific name (Grigson 1955, 1987). Grigson lists an additional 13 English common names, several clearly related to 'beccabunga' such as 'Beccy leaves' and 'Bekkabung'. The familiar 'Bird's eye' and 'Water Bird's eye' also appear, used for other Veronica species, plus 'Water purple' and 'Wellink'. Turner (1548) called the plant 'Brookelm'. Together with 'Watercress', Brooklime was a salad plant as mentioned above, the young tops and leaves providing not unpleasant eating.

Threats

None.

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