| Verbena | |
|---|---|
| Purpletop Vervain, Verbena bonariensis | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Phylum: | Angiosperms |
| Class: | Eudicots |
| Order: | Lamiales |
| Family: | Verbenaceae |
| Genus: | Verbena L.[1] |
| Species | |
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| Synonyms | |
Verbena ( /vərˈbiːnə/),[2] verbenas or vervains, is a genus in the family Verbenaceae. It contains about 250 species of annual and perennial herbaceous or semi-woody flowering plants. The majority of the species are native to the New World from Canada south to southern Chile, but some are also native in the Old World, mainly in Europe. These include Common Vervain (V. officinalis) and V. supina.
The leaves are usually opposite, simple, and in many species hairy, often densely so. The flowers are small, with five petals, and borne in dense spikes. Typically some shade of blue, they may also be white, pink, or purple, especially in cultivars.
The genus can be divided into a diploid North American and a polyploid South American lineage, both with a base chromosome number of 7. The European species derived from the North American lineage. It seems that Verbena as well as the related mock vervains (Glandularia) evolved from the assemblage provisionally treated under the genus name Junellia; both other genera were usually included in the Verbenaceae until the 1990s.[3] Intergeneric chloroplast gene transfer by an undetermined mechanism – though probably not hybridization – has occurred at least twice from vervains to Glandularia, between the ancestors of the present-day South American lineages and once more recently, between V. orcuttiana or Swamp Verbena (V. hastata) and G. bipinnatifida. In addition, several species of Verbena are of natural hybrid origin; the well-known Garden Vervain has an entirely muddy history. The relationships of this close-knit group are therefore hard to resolve with standard methods of computational phylogenetics.[4]
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Some species, hybrids and cultivars of vervain are used as ornamental plants. They are valued in butterfly gardening in suitable climates, attracting Lepidoptera such as the Hummingbird Hawk-moth (Macroglossum stellatarum), Chocolate Albatross (Appias lyncida), or the Pipevine Swallowtail (Battus philenor), and also hummingbirds, especially Common Vervain (V. officinalis), which is also grown as a honey plant.
For some vervain pathogens, see List of verbena diseases. Cultivated vervains are sometimes parasitized by Sweet potato whitefly (Bemisia tabaci) and spread this pest to other crops.
Vervain has longstanding use in herbalism and folk medicine, usually as a herbal tea. Nicholas Culpeper's 1652 The English Physitian discusses folk uses. Among other effects, it may act as a galactagogue and possibly sex steroid analogue. The plants are also sometimes used as abortifacient.
The essential oil of various species - mainly Common Vervain - is traded as Spanish Verbena oil. Considered inferior to oil of Lemon Verbena (Aloysia citrodora) in perfumery, it is of some commercial importance for herbalism and it seems to be a promising source of medical compounds. Verveine, the famous green liqueur from the region of Le Puy-en-Velay (France) is flavored with these vervains.
Verbena plants are drought-resistant, tolerating full to partial sun, and enjoy well-drained, average soils. Plants are usually grown from seed. Once the plants are established, they require little care and will spread out to cover the flower bed space allotted for them.
Verbena has long been associated with divine and other supernatural forces. It was called "tears of Isis" in Ancient Egypt, and later on "Juno's tears". In Ancient Greece, it was dedicated to Eos Erigineia. In the early Christian era, folk legend stated that Common Vervain (V. officinalis) was used to staunch Jesus' wounds after his removal from the cross. It was consequently called "Holy Herb" or (e.g. in Wales) "Devil's bane".
Vervain flowers are engraved on cimaruta, Italian anti-stregheria charms. In the 1870 The History and Practice of Magic by "Paul Christian" (Jean Baptiste Pitois) it is employed in the preparation of a mandragora charm.
While Common Vervain is not native to North America, it has been introduced there and for example the Pawnee have adopted it as an entheogen enhancer and in oneiromancy, much like Calea zacatechichi is used in Mexico.
The generic name is the Latin term for a plant sacred to the Ancient Romans.[5][6] Pliny the Elder describes verbena presented on Jupiter altars; it is not entirely clear if this referred to a Verbena rather than the general term for prime sacrificial herbs.
The common names of Common Vervain in many Central and Eastern European languages often associate it with iron. These include for example the Dutch IJzerhard ("iron-hardener"), Danish Læge-Jernurt ("medical ironwort"), German Echtes Eisenkraut ("true ironherb"), Slovak Železník lekársky ("medical ironherb"), and Hungarian vasfű ("iron grass").
In hanakotoba (花言葉, Japanese flower-language), vervains are called bijozakura (美女桜[Note 1]) and are a symbol of cooperativeness. In Western culture, they are the birthday flower of July 29.
An indeterminate vervain is among the plants on the eighth panel of the New World Tapestry ("Expedition to Cape Cod"), embroidered in 1602/03.
In the William Faulkner short story "An Odor of Verbena", vervain (referred to as verbena) is used symbolically and described as "the only scent that can be smelled above the scent of horses and courage", similar to the symbolic use of honeysuckle in "The Sound and the Fury".
Hazlitt's Faiths and Folklore (1905) quotes Aubrey's Miscellanies (1721), to wit:
In the series of young adult novels The Vampire Diaries, author L. J. Smith uses vervain to protect humans from vampires,[9] in an extension of vervain's fabled magic-suppression powers against witches. In The Struggle, Volume II, the vampire Stefan instructs the human Elena that vervain can "protect you against bewitchment, and it can keep your mind clear if someone is using Powers against you."[10] He tells her how it is prepared and used, "Once I've extracted the oil from the seeds, you can rub it into your skin, or add it to a bath. And you can make the dried leaves into a sachet and carry it with you, or put it under your pillow at night", but gives her an unprepared sprig for protection in the meantime.[11]
In 2010 Nobel Prize in Literature winner Mario Vargas Llosa's 1977 novel "Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter," one of the major characters, Pedro Camacho, constantly drinks "verbena-and-mint tea" instead of coffee. The character, a writer of radio soap operas, claims that it "clears the synapses."