Japanese name: ヒヨクソウ（比翼草） Scientific name:Veronica laxa
[Overview]
A perennial 25–70 cm tall, found in sunny grasslands and forest edges in the mountains.
It has a short underground stem, and several stems rise erect or obliquely.
The whole plant is rather densely covered with soft hairs.
The leaves are simple and opposite, ovate, 2–4.5 cm long and 1–3 cm wide, with irregular coarse teeth; the leaves on the upper part of the stem are larger.
The leaves have almost no petioles.
Racemes 5–20 cm long emerge in pairs from the upper leaf axils of the stem and bear many flowers.
The corolla is 4-lobed and opens in a saucer shape, 0.6–0.8 cm across, pale reddish purple to pale bluish purple with reddish purple.
The fruit is a flattened, obcordate capsule.
[Notes]
The Japanese name comes from hiyoku no tori (legendary birds that fly with joined wings), after the way the inflorescences grow in pairs.
