verbena (redirected from Verbena bonariensis)

verbena, common name for some members of the Verbenaceae, a family of herbs, shrubs, and trees (often climbing forms) of warmer regions of the world. Well-known wild and cultivated members of the family include species of the shrubby Lantana and of Verbena; many species of both are native to the United States. Many cultivated verbenas (herbs or shrubs) have fragrant blossoms and leaves that are sometimes used as condiments or for distillation of oils or for tea, as are those of the similar lemon verbena (Lippia citriodora) of tropical America and Africa. Wild American species are more frequently called vervains. The European vervain (V. officinalis), now naturalized in the United States, was sacred to the Greeks, Romans, and Druids and is associated in Christian tradition with the Crucifixion. In the Doctrine of Signatures, its bright flowers were seen as an indication that the plant could cure eye problems. Plants of the genus Avicennia are a characteristic constituent of tropical mangrove vegetation. Economically, the most important member of the family is teak. The family is classified in the division Magnoliophyta, class Magnoliopsida, order Lamiales.

---

verbena

Plant genus (Verbena) that contains about 250 species, almost all of them native to the New World tropics and subtropics. Two species are indigenous to the Old World. The familiar garden verbena (V. hortensis, or V. hybrida) is a creeping plant that has square stems and bears flat heads of phloxlike flowers, in a wide range of colours. Many U.S. species of Verbena are low-growing, small-flowered, somewhat weedy plants more commonly called vervains. The shrub lemon verbena (Aloysia triphylla), notable for its fragrant oil, is a member of the verbena, or vervain, family (family Verbenaceae), which contains more than 2,600 species in about 100 genera. Members of the family have opposite or whorled leaves that are usually undivided. The flowers, in spikes or clusters, usually consist of a tube flaring into four or five almost equally cut lobes. The family also includes teak.

---

verbena

1. any plant of the verbenaceous genus Verbena, chiefly of tropical and temperate America, having red, white, or purple fragrant flowers: much cultivated as garden plants

2. any of various similar or related plants, esp the lemon verbena