Dakota verbena is native to the American southwest. It appears in fields, grasses, and scrublands.
Plants: Plants are annuals or short-lived perennials, 4-16" (10-40 cm) tall. They are
variable, sometimes low and matted, sometimes taller. They may cover wide expanses of ground.
Stems are branched and ribbed, and purple or green; and both stems and leaves are hairy.
Leaves: Opposite, twice pinnate, thick, dark or gray green, hairy, up to 2½" (6.3 cm) long.
(Technically the leaves are pinnatifid, that is, the divisions don’t reach all the way to midveins.)
Leaves are rolled under, and have deep veins.
Flowers: Rounded, almost spherical clusters of pink, lavendar, or purple flowers,
about 2" (5 cm) around.
Each flower has five notched petals and a thin tubular throat (the corolla) up to ½" (1.5 cm) long.
The calyx of each flower in this variety is densely covered with glandular hairs, while G. bipinnatifida var. bipinnatifida lacks glands.
They appear from February to October.