Is lavender verbena? Are verbena flowers the same as lavender?

1. Really?

Lavender is certainly not verbena, and the two are quite different. Due to climatic reasons, there are very few places in my country where lavender can be grown, so many places grow verbena and label it as lavender, which makes many people not know how to distinguish them.

2. What are the differences?

1. Different families: Lavender and verbena are both in the Lamiaceae order, but the former is a perennial shrub of the Lamiaceae family, while the latter is a perennial herb of the Verbenaceae family. This means that when lavender grows to a certain extent, its branches will become woody, but this will not be the case with verbena.

2. Different appearance: Lavender has many branches. The branches are gray-brown with velvety surface. The leaves are linear. The flowers are in cymes and are purple. The leaves of verbena are simple, generally ovate and opposite, with stiff hairs on both sides. Its flowers are terminal or axillary, the corolla is two-lipped, and the color is blue-purple.

3. Different distribution: Lavender is native to the Mediterranean coastal areas. Wild lavender is distributed in France and Italy. In my country, it is mainly grown in Xinjiang. Although verbena is also native to Europe, it has strong adaptability and grows in Shaanxi, Shanxi, Gansu and Jiangsu in my country.

4. Different functions: Lavender and verbena are both very good ornamental plants, but in addition to ornamental, lavender can also be used to extract essential oils, and the dried flowers can be made into sachets or brewed into tea. Verbena is somewhat toxic and is generally used for medicinal purposes. It must be taken according to the doctor's instructions, otherwise it will cause adverse reactions.