Veronica persica Poir., Common Field-speedwell

Account Summary

Growth form, identification and preferred habitats

This hairy, sprawling winter- or summer-annual with decumbent to erect stems, 10-50 cm long, can germinate, grow rapidly and flower at almost any time of year, although the main flowering takes place between March and September. It branches from the base and bears heart-shaped leaves, the lower ones stalked, upper sessile, margins with few shallow teeth and veins beneath hairy (Butcher 1961). It resembles V. agrestis (Green Field-speedwell), but differs from it and V. polita (Grey Field-speedwell), by being larger all round and especially by its having relatively large, solitary, axillary, pale blue flowers, 8-12 mm in diameter with a white centre, borne on slender pedicels longer than the leaves that subtend them.

V. persica is a typical example of a ruderal annual weed of lowland arable cultivation, occurring, sometimes abundantly, in fallow areas or under crops in fields, especially cereals, or in gardens or on waste ground. V. persica also appears sporadically in other disturbed habitats, including spoil heaps, demolition sites and waysides. It prefers or demands regularly disturbed, moist, fertile, loam soil in the near-neutral, pH range 8.0–6.0 (Grime et al. 1988, 2007).

V. persica is strongly suppressed by shade, however, and its behaviour and restriction to semi-permanently disturbed ground suggests it displays low competitive ability. However, the above-ground dry weight and the total seed mass of V. persica is much larger than that of V. agrestis, whereas the seed weight as a percentage of above-ground weight is much lower than that in V. agrestis. This indicates a comparatively large competitive potential due to its strong vegetative development (Fischer 1987).

Flowering reproduction

As with other small, weedy Veronica species, the flowers of V. persica attract small flies and other Diptera with nectar and they are either insect pollinated or, if this fails to occur, as it often does, they self-pollinate (Fitter 1987; Sell & Murrell 2007).

The fruit capsule is distinctive and helps to identify the species, having widely divergent lobes, measuring 5 × 9 mm, its surface ciliate and the lobes distinctly flattened, with a slight keel (Melderis & Bangerter 1955; Salisbury 1964; Garrard & Streeter 1983). The seed is also rather distinctive, being 1.4 × 1.0 mm, cup-like or boat-shaped, coarsely tubercled (rugose) on the convex surface and grey, light brown or yellowish-brown in colour (Butcher 1961; Salisbury 1964; Sell & Murrell 2007).

There are 5-10 seeds in each of the two fruit locules, the average number in a capsule being 13. An average-sized plant produces around 2,000 seeds, but in large ones it can be 5,000-7,000. Moreover, since growth is so rapid, it is perfectly possible for two generations of the species to develop and fruit within a single year (Salisbury 1964). Seeds are said to be dispersed by ants, but the main agent of spread is probably man, transporting the species as impurities in agricultural seeds, in manure and in fodder (Salisbury 1964). Seed is not only prolifically produced and readily dispersed, it is also long-persistent in the soil seed bank, surviving for more than five years (Thompson et al. 1997).

Origin and introduction

V. persica is of SE Asian origin and was first recorded in Europe about 1800 and in Britain, from Berkshire, in 1825 (Garrard & Streeter 1983). After its first appearance, it spread extremely rapidly in Britain, so that the 8th edition of The British Flora described it as, "Pretty frequent in England and middle and south Scotland, possibly introduced with clover and other seeds." (Hooker & Walker-Arnott 1860).

V. persica is a tetraploid species of allopolyploid nature (2n=28), intermediate in character between its probable parents, the diploids V. polita (Grey Field-speedwell) and V. ceratocarpa C.A. Mey. (both 2n=14). The latter species is native to sub-humid or mesophytic deciduous forests of the Caucasus and Elburz mountains in N Iran, while V. polita also has its centre of variation in the Elburz range, where it grows as a slightly xerophytic, therophyte (ie a ruderal annual of fairly dry habitats) (Fischer 1987).

A characteristic primary habitat, probably for all the mentioned species (V. persica, V. polita and V. ceratocarpa), is pebble and gravel riverside places in mountain forest regions of N Iran. This type of habitat generally favours therophytic species of comparatively high ecological plasticity that are able to resist drought periods, but are simultaneously capable of benefitting from a good water supply and which have a broad light intensity tolerance. V. persica probably achieved its characteristic wide ecological amplitude by combining the stronger xeromorphic characters of V. polita, with the more mesomorphic features of the other parent, V. ceratocarpa (Fischer 1987).

Fermanagh occurrence

V. persica appears to be surprisingly rather local in Fermanagh, for it is generally a very common, to abundant, although perhaps sporadic weed of gardens and disturbed waysides elsewhere in B & I (Fischer 1987; New Flora of the BI 1991; An Irish Flora 1996). It has been recorded, however, in 51 Fermanagh tetrads (9.7% of the VC total), rather thinly scattered in the lowlands in the typical disturbed habitats it frequents.

While the current author (RSF) and RHN have no direct evidence on the matter, we have a feeling that this species is under-recorded in Fermanagh. It may perhaps be deliberately overlooked, being recognised as a widespread weed and be simply disregarded. Government employed survey workers might well consider it an insignificant alien of no conservation value and constituting no threat to native species in semi-native habitats and, therefore, ignore it. On the other hand, it could be argued that V. persica is primarily a plant of cultivated ground and the relative scarcity and local nature of the species in the Fermanagh might merely reflect the major decline of arable farming to almost total extinction that has happened during the past 60 years (Murray et al. 1992).

British and Irish occurrence

The New Atlas hectad map shows that V. persica is very widely distributed across all of lowland B & I (A. Horsfall, in: Preston et al. 2002).

European and world occurrence

V. persica has spread widely over most of Europe and has also been introduced through agriculture to S Africa, E Asia, N America, S Australia and New Zealand (Hultén & Fries 1986, Map 1660).

Names

The Latin specific epithet 'persica' translates as 'Persian', the old name for modern Iran, correctly indicating the point of origin of the species (Gilbert-Carter 1964). English common names include 'Bird'seye Speedwell', 'Common Field-speedwell', 'Persian Speedwell', 'Large Field-speedwell', 'Bird's-eye', 'Cat's-eyes' and 'Winter Speedwell'.

Threats

None.

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