WEDGE-LEAF FROG FRUIT
File Size: 87 KB
 
Lippia cuneifolia   (Torr. ) Steud.
Comanche County, Kansas
Perennial
Height: Prostrate
Family: Verbenaceae - Vervain Family
Flowering Period:   May, June, July, August
Stems: Prostrate, branching from woody base, to 3 feet long, somewhat 4-angled, sparsely to densely covered with flattened white hairs, infrequently rooting at nodes.
Leaves: Opposite, simple, sessile, rigid, linear-oblanceolate or wedge-shaped, 1/2 to 2 inches long, 1/8 to 1/3 inch wide, often gray- or white-pubescent when young, nearly glabrous when mature; tips pointed; margins with 1-4 sharp teeth on each side above the middle or infrequently entire; smaller leaves often in clusters in axils.
Inflorescences: Spikes, dense, on stalks 1/5 to 2.5 inches long in leaf axils, initially rounded, later cylindric and elongating to 4/5 inch; bracts below heads egg-shaped, about 1/5 inch long, tips abruptly pointed.
Flowers: 4-parted, somewhat 2-lipped; calyx small, membranous, shorter than corolla tube; corolla purplish or whitish; stamens 4, in 2 pairs.
Fruits: 2 nutlets, included in calyx, oblong, yellowish, each 1-seeded.
Habitat: Prairies, stream and pond edges, roadside ditches, waste areas.
Distribution: West 3/4 of Kansas.
Uses: The Navajo applied a poultice of wedge-leaf frog fruit to spider bites.
 See fog fruit (Lippia lanceolata).

Wedge-leaf frog fruit leaves
137 KB
Comanche County, Kansas
Wedge-leaf frog fruit inflorescence
90 KB
Comanche County, Kansas