Veronica persica Poiret, Persian speedwell. Annual, taprooted and fibrous–rooted (along lower internodes), (1—)several–stemmed at base, prostrate or decumbent to ascending, in range 5—20 cm tall; shoots sparsely to densely villous or pilose.
Stems cylindric, 0.6—0.8 mm diameter, lower stem often purple–red, internodes 8—35 mm long, hairs mixed long and very short.
Leaves opposite decussate at the lowermost nodes and helically alternate leaflike bractlets, simple, short–petiolate to subsessile (bractlets), without stipules; petiole 0.5—4 mm long, villous below, villous–ciliate on edges; blade widely ovate to widely depressed ovate, 4.3—25 × 4.2—19 mm, truncate to broadly cordate at base, crenate–dentate to crenate–serrate or coarsely dentate on margins, obtuse to rounded at tip, with 3—5 veins from base slightly sunken on upper surface and conspicuously raised on lower surface, lower surface slightly lighter and often with conspicuous hairs along veins.
Inflorescence leafy raceme, terminal, 120—160 mm long, hairy like shoot; peduncle 20—35 mm long; bractlet subtending pedicel as large as leaves at base of raceme, decreasing upward; pedicel (10—)14—27 mm long.
Flower bisexual, bilateral, in range 7—8(—12) mm across; calyx 4(—5)–lobed; tube 0.5 mm long, villous; lobes unequal, lanceolate, the long lobe ca. 3.9 × 2 mm, the other lobes 2.7—3.2 × 1.2—1.8 mm, lobes increasing 2× in fruit, green, acute to acuminate at tip, the long lobe entire and ciliate on margins, with 3 principal veins and aging veiny, glabrous or sparsely hairy and initially with some inconspicuous glandular hairs; corolla 4–lobed, strong violet–blue and white with conspicuous nectar lines; tube ± 0.7 mm long, white, with conspicuous, colorless short hairs concealing orifice; lobes overlapping, 4—4.5 mm long, tapered and weakly clawed at base, rounded at tip, the upper lobe 3.2—4.5 mm wide, the other lobes 2—2.5 mm wide with lateral lobes equal and intermediate in width and the basal lobe the narrowest; stamens 2, fused to base of corolla tube; filaments fusiform and slightly sigmoidal, 2.7—3 mm long, white; anther basifixed, dithecal, 0.7—1.2 mm long, dark blue–violet or dark blue, arrow–shaped at base, longitudinally dehiscent; pollen white; pistil 1; ovary superior, inversely conic compressed side–to–side, 0.5—0.8 × 0.8—1 × 0.5 mm, lacking notch at tip, green, hairy above midpoint, 2–chambered, each chamber with 5—6(—8) ovules; style increasing width from base to tip, 1.5—2 mm long increasing to 3 mm long in fruit, pale lavender aging darker; stigma capitate, pale lavender, entire, hairy.
Fruit capsule loculicidal and septicidal, 2–valved, in range to 14–seeded, with 2 divergent, spreading lobes, compressed broadly heart–shaped, 3—4.5 × 5—7.5 mm, 2 mm thick, straw–colored to brown, keeled, deeply and broadly notched with notch 0.7—1.2 mm deep, hairy on upper portion, with glandular hairs especially along keel, veiny on valves; style persistent; persistent calyx lobes spreading.
Seed ovate to round in outline, 1.2—2.3 × 0.8—1.8 mm, flattened top–to–bottom, pale brown, cup–shaped on lower side and sometimes inrolled, transversely ridged.
A. C. Gibson & B. A. Prigge