Blue Vervain is a tall, sun-loving, clump-forming wildflower with stiff stems and dashing purple flowers that bloom from the bottom up.  It grows naturally in moist meadows and thickets and along the edges of ponds and rivers.
 
     The main inflorescence can get up to a foot long and filled with tiny purple flowers. It has some salt resistance and feeds butterflies, moths, wasps and native bees.  Cardinals and other birds eat the seeds.
 
     Verbena spreads slowly by underground stems and self seeding.