Veronica-serpyllifolia-ssp-serpyllifolia_4

Description:

Veronica serpyllifolia ssp. serpyllifolia L.Thyme-leaved Speedwell, DE: Gewhnlicher Quendel- Ehrenpreis, Thymianblttriger EhrenpreisSlo.: timijanov jetinikDat.: May 15. 2016Lat.: 46.36044 Long.: 13.70256Code: Bot_956/2016_DSC2130Habitat: Trodden grassland around a cottage; calcareous, skeletal, ground, under the canopy of large Tilia cordata, in half shade, partly protected from direct rain by tree canopy, elevation 600 m (1.970 feet); average precipitations ~ 3.000 mm/year, average temperature 7-9 deg C, alpine phytogeographical region. Place: Lower Trenta valley, between villages Soa and Trenta, next to the cottage Trenta 2b, East Julian Alps, Posoje, Slovenia EC. Comment: Genus Veronica is numerous. About 400 species grow worldwide and 36 in Slovenia. Most of them are low, inconspicuous plants with small, whitish, pink, pale violet or bluish flowers. Only a few of them have vividly blue, easy to spot flowers (for example, very common Veronica chamaedrys, which frequently forms large, dense, radiantly blue patches and much less frequent alpine Veronica fruticans). To recognize genus is not difficult. Most of them have typically shaped flowers and their fruits have a form of small hearts. Veronica serpyllifolia ssp. serpyllifolia is originally an Euro-Siberian, now Sub-cosmopolitan floral element. It is common and 'modest', not really showy and many times overlooked. However, its flowers are beautiful when looked with a hand lens. It keeps with road and path sides and other grassy, nitrogen rich places. One can find it from lowland to subalpine elevations. Herbarium: Herbarij Biolokega Intituta Jovan Hadi, SRC ZASU, Index Herbariorum LJS.Ref.:(1) M.A. Fischer, W. Adler, K. Oswald, Exkursionsflora fr sterreich, Liechtenstein und Sdtirol, LO Landesmuseen, Linz, Austria (2005), p 734.(2) A. Martini et all., Mala Flora Slovenije (Flora of Slovenia - Key) (in Slovenian), Tehnina Zaloba Slovenije (2007), p 560. (3) D. Aeschimann, K. Lauber, D.M. Moser, J.P. Theurillat, Flora Alpina, Vol. 2., Haupt (2004), p 214.(4) K. Lauber and G. Wagner, Flora Helvetica, 5. Auflage, Haupt (2012), p 888.