Speedwell, Heath

Information on Heath Speedwell

Common Name: Heath Speedwell
Scientific Name: Veronica officinalis
Irish Name: Lus cré
Family Group: Plantaginaceae
Distribution: View Map (Courtesy of the BSBI)
Flowering Period


Click for list of all flowering by month
Heath Speedwell is not easily confused with other wild plants on this web site.


Another pretty little Speedwell, this one bears its little pale-lilac-blue flowers in a small, tapering, vertical spike, reaching to about 10 cm high. Each corolla (6–8 mm) has four veined lobes, the lower being narrower than the other three. It's a hairy plant, creeping on grassland, pastures and mostly acid soils, rooting at nodes. It has oval, toothed leaves which are hairy on both sides, the lower leaves being stalked. The flowering stem rises from an opposite pair of these leaves, the flowers blooming from May to August. This is a native plant belonging to the Plantaginaceae family.  

It was during a visit to Donegal's Glenveagh National Park in 2010 that I found and photographed this lovely little wildflower.  

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

No longer used in medicine, the juice of this plant was once recommended as a cure for earache. When a plant has the word 'officinalis' as its species name, this denotes its use (current or in the past) as a culinary or medical herb.  

Speedwell, Heath
Speedwell, Heath
Speedwell, Heath