Blue Vervain (Verbena hastata)

Blue Vervain attracts many kinds of native bees and even has a specialist bee, Nebraska Vervain Calliopsis Bee (Holm, 2014). It is also the host plant for the Common Buckeye butterfly and 10 other butterflies and moths in our area (nwf.org). Blue Vervain produces large quantities of nectar. With its long floral spikes and densely packed flowers on each spike, the blooming period of can be over two months long. This makes it an outstanding plant to cover the succession of flowers needed to sustain a diversity of pollinator species (Holm, 2014). The seeds are eaten by many small mammals and are occasionally eaten by songbirds. Added bonus, herbivores typically avoid this plant due to its bitter foliage.

Photo credit: (1) Judy Gallagher, (2) John Blair