This lifeform is widespread in North America. This lifeform is found in Central America. The purple color will help identify this lilfeform.

Large bracted vervain (Verbena bracteata = Verbena bracteosa) is native to large areas of North and Central America. In North America, it is found from Virginia west to Minnesota and British Columbia, and south to Florida, Arizona, and California. The four-sided stem is much branched from the base. The branches can be horizontal near the base. The leaves are hairy and less than three inches long. The flowers are purple-blue.

Verbena (Vervain) genus is native to the New World in both temperate and tropical regions.  (However, one species is native to Europe.)  There are about 250 species of herbs and small shrubs in this genus.  As of 1994, there were 33 species and 15 subspecies growing in greater North America.  The leaves are usually lobed or toothed.  Flowers are in erect terminal spikes with five lobes.

Verbena Family (Verbenaceae) family is a large family with approximately 2,000 members arranged in about 90 genera of primarily a tropical nature. As of 1994, there were about 142 species in 28 genera either native to or established in greater North America including Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Hawaii, and Greenland.

Tubiflora Order of plants is comprised of a large number of  families that are characterized by having tube-like flowers. Several of the families have asymmetrical flowers with various lip and lobe configurations, while others have symmetrical flowers. The convention is to refer to the corolla divisions as lips, and to refer to the extensions at the end of the lips as lobes.

Dicots (Dicotyledoneae Class) are the predominant group of vascular plants on earth. With the exception of the grasses (Monocots) and the Conifers (Gymnosperms), most of the larger plants that one encounters are  Dicots. Dicots are characterized by having a seed with two outer shell coverings. Some of the more primitive Dicots are the typical hardwood trees (oaks, birches, hickories, etc). The more advanced Dicots include many of the Composite Family flowers like the  Dandelion, Aster, Thistles, and Sunflowers. Although many Monocots reach a very high degree of specialization, most botanists feel that the Dicots represent the most advanced group of plants.

Seed plants (Phylum Embryophyta) are generally grouped into one large phylum containing three major classes: the Gymnosperms, the Monocots, and the Dicots. (Some scientists separate the Gymnosperms into a separate phylum and refer to the remaining plants as flowering plants or Angiospermae.)

For North American counts of the number of species in each genus and family, the primary reference has been John T. Kartesz, author of A Synonymized Checklist of the Vascular Flora of the United States, Canada, and Greenland (1994). The geographical scope of his lists include, as part of greater North America, Hawaii, Alaska, Greenland, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.

Kartesz lists 21,757 species of vascular plants comprising the ferns, gymnosperms and flowering plants as being found in greater North America (including Alaska, Hawaii, Greenland, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands).

There are estimates within the scientific world that about half of the listed North American seed plants were originally native with the balance being comprised of Eurasian and tropical plants that have become established.

Plant kingdom contains a large variety of different organisms including mosses, ferns, and seed plants. Most plants manufacture their energy from sunlight and water. Identification of many species is difficult in that most individual plants have characteristics that have variables based on soil moisture, soil chemistry, and sunlight.

Because of the difficulty in learning and identifying different plant groups, specialists have emerged that study only a limited group of plants. These specialists revise the taxonomy and give us detailed descriptions and ranges of the various species.  Their results are published in technical journals and written with highly specialized words that apply to a specific group.

On the other hand, there are the nature publishers. These people and companies undertake the challenging task of trying to provide easy to use pictures and descriptions to identify those species.