Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses

FOG FRUIT

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Lippia lanceolata Michx.

[=Phyla lanceolata (Michx. ) Greene]

Douglas County, Kansas

Perennial

Height: 8-24 inches

Family: Verbenaceae - Vervain Family

Flowering Period: June, July, August, September

Also Called:

Northern fogfruit, frog-fruit, lanceleaf fogfruit.

Stems:

Slender, trailing on ground, 8 to 24 inches long, often rooting at nodes, sparingly hairy or glabrous, branches sometimes erect; forms dense mats.

Leaves:

Opposite, thin, bright green, lanceolate or oblong or ovate, 1/2 to 3 inches long, 1/5 to 1.2 inches wide, tapering at both ends, tip pointed, veins prominent, margins sharply toothed from below middle to tip.

Inflorescences:

Spikes, solitary, initially globose, becoming cylindrical and elongating to 1.5 inches, arising from axils of leaves; on slender, erect stalks 1.5 to 3 inches long, usually equaling or surpassing the leaves.

Flowers:

Calyx membranaceous, about as long as corolla tube; corolla irregular, 1/10 inch long, pale blue, purplish or white, center sometimes yellowish; stamens 4, arranged in 2 sets.

Fruits:

Nutlets 2,each 1-seeded, egg-shaped, olive or yellowish.

Habitat:

Wet habitats; ditches and margins of streams, ponds and lakes.

Distribution:

East 2/3 of Kansas.

Comments:

The extensive root system of this plant gives it the ability to serve as a soil anchor. Ducks will often consume the seeds.

See Wedge-leaf frog fruit (Lippia cuneifolia).

Fog fruit flowers