Purpletop vervain
Verbena bonariensis L.
- light
- Full sun
- water
- Medium
- tall
- 1.5 m
- wide
- 53 cm
Verbenaceae
Also called Argentinian vervain, Purple top, Purpletop, Wild Verbena, Argentine vervain
Formerly Verbena inamoena, Verbena intercedens
When it flowers
Not known yet in the tropics: too few flowering observations to read a season from.
Read from iNaturalist photographs of it in flower. A month counts at 50% of the best month's flowering share (smoothed over three months) and 10% of its flowering count, from at least 100 flowering observations in the band.
If a child, a pet or anyone may have eaten a plant, contact a doctor or vet straight away, or call the National Poisons Information Centre (AIIMS, New Delhi) on 1800 116 117, free and open 24 hours.
Something wrong with it?About it
- Grows as
- PerennialKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Climate
- SubtropicalKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Wild in
- SE. & S. Brazil to S. South AmericaKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Light
- Full sun (6 h or more)Read from RHS and NC State Extension, checked by a majority of its sourcesBacked by both sources. Sources differ: RHS full; NC State Extension full, part
- Height
- 1.5 m to 1.5 mRead from RHS and NC State Extension, checked by a majority of its sourcesBacked by both sources. Sources differ: RHS 1.5–2.5 m; NC State Extension 2–5 ft
- Spread
- 36 cm to 71 cmRead from RHS and NC State Extension, checked: the middle of what its sources sayHalfway between its 2 sources, which differ. Sources differ: RHS 0.1–0.5 m; NC State Extension 2–3 ft
- Water
- Average: moist, well drainedRead from RHS and NC State Extension, not yet checked: its sources are splitTied: no reading has a majority of the 2 sources, so all are kept for a person to settle. Sources differ: RHS medium; NC State Extension low
- Flowers
- PurpleRead from RHS and NC State Extension, checked by a majority of its sourcesBacked by both sources
- Coldest it survives
- -13.9 °C (USDA zone 7b)Read from RHS and NC State Extension, checked: the middle of what its sources sayHalfway between its 2 sources, which differ. Sources differ: RHS -10 °C; NC State Extension -17.8 °C
Not known yet: heat, hottest it survives.
In other languages (12)
- Japanese
- ヤナギハナガサ, サンジャクバーベナ
- Czech
- sporýš klasnatý
- French
- Verveine de Buenos-Aires
- Chinese
- 柳葉馬鞭草, 南美馬鞭草, 柳叶马鞭草
- German
- Patagonisches Eisenkraut
- Norwegian Bokmål
- argentinajernurt
- Finnish
- jättiverbena
- Russian
- Вербена буэнос-айресская
- Danish
- Kæmpe-Jernurt
- Spanish
- Verbena argentina, Flor de papel
- Slovak
- železník argentínsky
- Dutch
- Stijf IJzerhard, Stijf ijzerhard
Where this comes from
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-24, CC0-1.0 (observation counts)
- Wikidata, read 2026-10-24, CC0-1.0
- Kew's checklist, read 2026-10-24, CC-BY-4.0
- RHS, read 2026-10-25, fact, cited
- NC State Extension, read 2026-10-25, fact, cited
- Wikimedia Commons, read 2026-10-24, CC BY 2.0
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC BY
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC0
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC0
- 3D model: Verbena bonariensis (built for Vanagrha) by Vanagrha, own
A fact “checked by a majority of its sources” was settled by a vote of the pages it was read from, not by a person reading it; one marked “one source” rests on that page alone. Anything else not marked checked has not been checked yet. Where nothing is known, the page says so rather than guess.