Aloysia gratissimia
Family: Verbenaceae
Plant Description: Usually, deciduous shrub to 3 m high with mostly elliptic or obovate leaves 3-27 mm long, opposite. Very slender, densely branched, thicket-forming, upright shrub with stiff, squarish, brittle gray branches that reveal a yellow wood. Leaf margins entire or toothed. Flowers in slender spikes, the corolla 3-4 mm wide, white with yellowthroat. Faint odor of vanilla.
Plant Trivia: Poisonous to horses, mules, and burros. In Mexico, the leaves and flowers have reportedly been used medicinally to treat diseases of the urinary tract. Also used as a landscape ornamental.
Field Identification:
Occurrence: Common in brushy pastures on various soils.
Bloom Period: April-December
Plant Use: Important nectar producing plant for honey and provides cover for wildlife. Has little food value, but is good overstory and escape cover for birds, mammals, and reptiles.
Key to species of Aloysia:
- Corolla white…………………………………………………………………………..A. gratissima
Corolla purplish………………………………………………………………….A. marostachya
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