Species
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Verbena stricta Vent.

Hoary verbena, hoary verbena, hoary vervain, mullein-leaved vervain

Climate known 57 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Verbena stricta, also known as hoary verbena, hoary vervain, tall vervain, or woolly verbena, is a North American wildflower. It was first described by Étienne Pierre Ventenat in his work, Description des plantes nouvelles.

Text from Wikipedia, “Verbena stricta”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Verbena

Verbena, also known as vervain or verveine, is a genus in the family Verbenaceae. It contains about 150 species of annual and perennial herbaceous or semi-woody flowering plants. The majority of the species are native to the Americas and Asia; however, Verbena officinalis, the common vervain or common verbena, is the type species and native to Europe.

Text from Wikipedia, “Verbena”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Verbenaceae
Described by
Vent.
Native to
Ontario, Québec, Colorado +36
Wild records
1847 in range· 435 open

At a glance

Warmest month
28°C
Jul, mean day; nights 19 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
845mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jun 113 mm (CHELSA)
Light
11–41DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: a summer growing season, April to October in the northern hemisphere (April to October at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 845 mm a year, wettest June at 113 mm, driest January at 25 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 11 to 41 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -17.7 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Verbena alopecurus Cav.; Verbena cuneifolia Raf.; Verbena mollis Raf.; Verbena rigens Michx.; Verbena scoparia Tausch and 3 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, April to October in the northern hemisphere (April to October at the habitat, northern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (653 mm of 845 mm) falls in April to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 16.7 °C against a yearly mean of 9.2 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: October to April.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 845 mm a year, wettest June at 113 mm, driest January at 25 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

845 mm a year at the habitat, 653 mm of it April to October. Wettest month June at 113 mm, driest January at 25 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 603 mm to 1083 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 11 to 41 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 11 to 41 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 9, the highest 90th-percentile month 44).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor -17.7 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -17.7 °C, the absolute minimum -28.5 °C, about 138 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 32.5 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -9.2 °C in January (across the envelope cells -13.5 °C to -4.5 °C), warmest day 28.0 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -17.7 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 55 to 62% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from -1 °C in Jan to 28 °C in Jul; mean night from -9 °C in Jan to 19 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 845 mm of rain a year, most in Jun. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 1263 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -28.5 °C and the 99th-percentile day 32.5 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-40°-20°20°40°frost32.5° 99th-percentile day (undated)-28.5° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125150mm rainDLI 11–41RH 55–62 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 1263 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C-1 / -5–52 / -2–88 / 4–1415 / 12–2021 / 18–2426 / 24–2928 / 26–3227 / 25–3123 / 21–2716 / 14–208 / 5–131 / -3–6
Night °C-9 / -14–-5-8 / -11–-3-3 / -5–24 / 2–810 / 8–1416 / 14–1919 / 17–2218 / 16–2114 / 12–167 / 5–100 / -3–4-7 / -11–-3
Rain mm25 / 12–6429 / 15–6151 / 33–7780 / 56–102100 / 80–131113 / 84–132102 / 76–118100 / 69–11988 / 51–10170 / 49–9253 / 22–9234 / 16–74
DLI13 / 11–1619 / 18–2226 / 25–2933 / 32–3637 / 37–4041 / 40–4441 / 40–4436 / 34–4028 / 26–3220 / 18–2313 / 11–1711 / 9–14
RH %62 / 57–6560 / 56–6357 / 55–5955 / 53–5656 / 54–5857 / 55–5858 / 54–5959 / 55–6057 / 54–5957 / 54–5959 / 56–6162 / 57–65

Each figure is the median across the 1263 grid cells holding the 1755 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 936:1993 (43.175, -80.325). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -28.5 °C, 1st-percentile night -17.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 32.5 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 1263 distinct grid cells holding the 1755 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 936:1993 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 43.00_-80.625, lapse-corrected -27 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 238 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeOntario, Québec, Colorado, Montana, Washington, Wyoming, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Indiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Vermont, West Virginia, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee· introduced: Great Britain, Manchuria
Kew's description“annual or perennial” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker42.679, -89.482 · in the densest population, 765 records (41% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1847 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 435 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 6 km away. 5 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 92 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 2° block of the 1847 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Verbena strictaVerbena strictaVerbena strictaVerbena strictaVerbena strictaVerbena strictaVerbena strictaVerbena stricta

Photographs: no rights reserved · CC0 (4); (c) Emmett Collins-Sussman, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Michelle Orcutt, some rights reserved (CC BY).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Verbena stricta, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Birds of a Prairie Community
S. Charles Kendeigh (1941) · Ornithological Applications
Contrasting Foraging Patterns: Testing Resource-Concentration and Dilution Effects with Pollinators and Seed Predators
Alexandria Wenninger, Tania N. Kim, Brian J. Spiesman, Claudio Gratton (2016) · Insects
Nectar Sources of Day-Flying Lepidoptera of Central Illinois
John F. Tooker, Peter F. Reagel, Lawrence M. Hanks (2002) · Annals of the Entomological Society of America
Habitat Distribution of Peromyscus leucopus within Prairie Woods
Marie Van Deusen, Donald W. Kaufman (1977) · Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science
Effects of Grazing on Vegetation and Soils in Southeastern South Dakota
John Beebe, George R. Hoffman (1968) · The American Midland Naturalist
The mating systems and pollination biology of three species of Verbena (Verbenaceae).
Robert William Cruden, Kristina K. Baker, Thomas E. Cullinan, Karen A. Disbrow (1990) · UNI ScholarWorks (University of Northern Iowa)
Storage of Root Reserves in Rhodes Grass
H. Weinmann (1940) · PLANT PHYSIOLOGY
Quantitative Study of Degeneration of Mixed Prairie
F. A. Branson, J. E. Weaver (1953) · Botanical Gazette
Taxonomic Studies in the Verbena stricta Complex (Verbenaceae)
Susan C. Barber (1982) · Systematic Botany
Natural Hybridization among Verbena stricta, V. hastata, and V. urticifolia in Kansas
Jerold D. Poindexter (1962) · Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science
A note on the isolation of ursolic acid from Verbena Stricta, vent
Nydia M. King, Asima Chatterjee, Lloyd M. Parks (1950) · Journal of the American Pharmaceutical Association (Scientific ed )

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Verbena 6 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 53 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.