Veronica longifolia Garden Speedwell

A tall, perennial speedwell, which forms clumps with stems woody at the base bearing toothed, lanceolate leaves and long, attractive spikes of lilac-blue (sometimes white or pinkish) flowers in summer. It is frequently grown in gardens and can become naturalised as a garden escape in rough grassland and waste ground. It usually doesn't persist for many years. It was first recorded in the wild in Britain in 1910 and it has now a scatterred, mostly southern distribution. It is not commonly recorded in Wales and there are very few records of it naturalised in West Glamorgan. The fertile hybrid between Veronica longifolia and Veronica spicata, which is also grown in gardens, may also occur naturalised occasionally; it is intermediate between its parents.

Neophyte