# vervain
## English
### Alternative forms

* vervaine, vervein, verveine (obsolete)

### Etymology

From Middle English verveyne, from Old French verveine, from Latin verbēna. Doublet of verbena.

### Pronunciation

* (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈvɜːveɪn/
* Audio (Southern England):(file)
* (General American) IPA: /ˈvɚveɪn/

### Noun

vervain (countable and uncountable, plural vervains)
* Any herbaceous plant in the genus Verbena especially if used for medicinal purposes, primarily Verbena officinalis, common in Europe and formerly held to have medicinal properties.
    Hypernym: verbena
** 1612, Michael Drayton, Poly-Olbion, song 13 p. 218:The Yarrow, where-with-all he stops the wound-made gore: The healing Tutsan then, and Plantan for a sore. And hard by them againe he holy Vervaine finds, Which he about his head that hath the Megrim binds.
** 1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 147:The candlesticks were surrounded by wreaths of vervain[.]
** 1971, Richard Carpenter, Catweazle and the Magic Zodiac, Harmondsworth: Puffin Books, page 41:There were bunches of wild garlic to keep out evil spirits, foxgloves for healing spells and hemlock and vervain for darker magic.

#### Derived terms

* common vervain (Verbena officinalis)
* blue vervain (Verbena hastata)
* white vervain, nettle-leaved vervain (Verbena urticifolia)
* hoary vervain (Verbena stricta)
* bastard vervain
** orubian bastard vervain, orubian vervain (Stachytarpheta orubica, once Verbena orubica)
** awned bastard vervain, aristate bastard vervain (Stachytarpheta aristata, also Verbena aristata, Zappania aristata, heterotypic synonym of Stachytarpheta orubica
** changeable-flowered bastard vervain (Stachytarpheta mutabilis)
** germander-leaved bastard vervain (Stachytarpheta prismatica)
** scaly bastard bastard vervain (Stachytarpheta squamosa)
** Cayenne bastard vervain, Cayenne vervain (Stachytarpheta cayennensis)
** strigose bastard vervain (Stachytarpheta strigosa)
** bordered bastard vervain (Stachytarpheta marginata)
** forked bastard vervain (Stachytarpheta dichotoma)
** Jamaica bastard vervain, Jamaica vervain (Stachytarpheta jamaicensis)
** Indian bastard vervain (Stachytarpheta indica)
** narrow-leaved bastard vervain (Stachytarpheta angustifolia, Verbena angustifolia, synonym of Stachytarpheta indica or Verbena simplex)
* narrowleaf vervain (Verbena simplex)
* Amador County vervain (Verbena × clemensiorum)
* gray vervain (Verbena canescens)
* Red Hills vervain (Verbena californica)
* rough-leaf false vervain
* Brazilian vervain (Verbena brasiliensis)
* bracted vervain, bigbract verbena, prostrate vervain, carpet vervain (Verbena bracteata)
* Fort Huachuca vervain (Verbena gracilis)
* Ehrenberg's vervain (Verbena ehrenbergiana)
* mock vervain (Glandularia)
** germander-leaved vervain (now Glandularia peruviana, once Verbena chamaedrifolia)
** Dakota mock vervain, Prairie vervain (now Glandularia bipinnatifida)
** beaked mock vervain, pale mock vervain, Chihuahuan mock vervain (Glandularia quandrangulata)
** southwestern mock vervain (Glandularia gooddingii)
** Latin American mock Vervain (Glandularia tenera)
** coastal mock Vervain (Glandularia maritima)
** Tampa mock vervain (Glandularia tampensis)
** rose mock vervain, rose vervain (Glandularia canadensis)
** pink mock vervain (Glandularia pumila)
** Davis Mountain mock vervain (Glandularia wrightii)
* purpletop vervain (Verbena bonariensis and for Verbena incompta)
* jointed vervain (Phyla nodiflora, once Verbena nodiflora)
* Carolina vervain (Verbena carolina)
* supine vervain (Verbena supina)
* riverbank vervain (Verbena riparia)
* tuberous vervain, stiff vervain (Verbena rigida)
* fanleaf vervain (Verbena plicata)
* Chihuahuan vervain (Verbena pinetorum)
* pinleaf vervain (Verbena perennis)
* hillside vervain (Verbena neomexicana)
* Uruguayan vervain (Verbena montevidensis)
* mint vervain (Verbena menthifolia)
* seashore vervain (Verbena litoralis)
* western vervain (Verbena lasiostachys)
* Texas vervain (Verbena halei)
* South American mock vervain (Glandularia pulchella)
* vervain hummingbird
* vervain mallow