Veronica chamaedrys - Germander Speedwell

 Germander Speedwell

By Lachlan Royle 

Germander's speedwell goes by a number of name's other than its most common one; bird's eye and cat's eye speedwell being the most used other than its general name. It is a herbaceous perennial species that historically was seen as a good luck charm for travellers. From April to June it blooms beautiful quaint flowers that are a pale blue hue. 

Ecologically Germander's speedwell is a very important source of nectar for an abundance of bee species. It is a very widespread and common flower often going unnoticed in winter months when only its leaves are visible. 

For our end of year field assessment we were tasked to identify Germander's speedwell using our Collins wildflower key and then come up with an approximation for the number of individuals within UEA's enclosed nature area. To identify I went through the following steps :

1. Firstly I used the main key to identify the flowering plant as a member of the family Veronicaceae due to it having 4 petals and pale blue flowers 
2. This then takes you to page 410, the speedwells
3. Use key here, flowers in racemes arising from the axils of the leaves 
4. Stem and leaves hairy
5. Hairs on stem arranged in two opposite rows 
6. This leaves only Germander Speedwell as a viable option

Then using transects and percentage cover I was able to estimate the number within the closed space. It is fair to say I have never given as much time and attention to a plant as I did Germanders speedwell and i have grown fond of the plant, if you can do such a thing.