Field-speedwell, Common

Information on Common Field-speedwell

Common Name: Common Field-speedwell
Scientific Name: Veronica persica
Irish Name: Lus cré garraí
Family Group: Plantaginaceae
Distribution: View Map (Courtesy of the BSBI)
Flowering Period


Click for list of all flowering by month
Common Field-speedwell could sometimes be confused with:

Field-speedwell, Grey, Field-speedwell, Green,

This straggly annual wildflower is perhaps our most frequent Speedwell around the country.  Found on bare soil, cultivated and waste ground, it is quite downy.  Pretty bright blue flowers (8-12mm across) are borne solitarily on thin, sometimes reddish, stems which only reach to about 20cm high.  The corolla has four lobes, the lower one being smaller and white, and it has two stamens.  The hairy oval leaves are pale green with toothed margins.  This lovely little flower blooms all year round and is a delight to come across on a cold winter's day.  It is thought to have originated in Persia, hence the species name persica, and it belongs to the family Plantaginaceae.

I first recorded this wildflower in Roundwood, Co Wicklow in 1976 and photographed it in Gibletstown, Co Wexford in 2006.

If you are satisfied you have correctly identified this plant, please submit your sighting to the National Biodiversity Data Centre

In times past there was a tradition among seafaring folk which was to give travellers a little bunch of blue flowers and wishing them 'Speed Well'.  

Field-speedwell, Common
Field-speedwell, Common
Field-speedwell, Common
Field-speedwell, Common