White vervain with bluish flowers

August 29

Heavy rain in the night and this forenoon. 

P. M. — To J. Farmer's by river. 

The Helianthus decapetalus, apparently a variety, with eight petals, about three feet high, leaves petioled, but not wing-petioled, and broader-leaved than that of August 12th, quite ovate with a tapering point, with ciliate petioles, thin but quite rough beneath and above, stem purple and smoothish, Hosmer's bank, opposite Azalea Swamp. 

Fragrant everlasting in prime and very abundant, whitening Carter's pasture. 

Ribwort still. 

Verbena urticifolia - White Vervain

(Wikimedia)

An apparent white vervain with bluish flowers, as blue as bluets even or more so, roadside beyond Farmer's barn.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, August 29, 1856

The Helianthus decapetalus, broader-leaved than that of August 12th. See August 12, 1856 ("Am surprised to see still a third species or variety of helianthus . . . I cannot identify it."); August 29, 1858 ("The Assabet helianthus (apparently variety of decapetalus), well out some days at least.") See also August 11, 1856 ("A new sunflower at Wheeler's Bank, this side Corner Spring, which I will call the tall rough sunflower . . . It does not correspond exactly to any described.”);  August 11, 1858 (“See a small variety of helianthus growing with the divaricatus, on the north side of Peter’s path . . . apparently answers best to the H. tracheliifolius.”) and A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Helianthus

Fragrant everlasting in prime and very abundant. See August 10, 1856 ("Fragrant everlasting, maybe some days.”); August 11, 1858 (“I smell the fragrant everlasting concealed in the higher grass and weeds.”) See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Aromatic Herbs

White vervain with bluish flowers. See July 28, 1853 ("Saw lower leaves of the white vervain turned a reddish lake or claret."); August 6, 1853 ("Lower leaves of some catnip and a white vervain have turned."); August 12, 1851 ("The nettle-leaved vervain (Verbena urticifolia) by roadside at Emerson’s."); August 31, 1851 ("The flowers of the nettle-leaved vervain are now near the ends of the spike, like the blue.")

An apparent white

vervain with bluish flowers

as blue as bluets.

A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau,  White vervain with bluish flowers

A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau

"A book, each page written in its own season,

out-of-doors, in its own locality.”

~edited, assembled and rewritten by zphx © 2009-2026

https://tinyurl.com/hdt-560829