Verbena hastata 'Blue Spires' (blue vervain)

'Blue Spires' is a cultivar of blue vervain or swamp verbena for average to moist garden conditions. It has square hairy stems with candelabra-like inflorescences of erect, slender, pencil-like spikes of tiny, tubular, purplish-blue flowers with deep purple bracts. They open in an upward-moving whorl along branching flower spikes over the July–September bloom period. Prefers full sun, wet areas.

Blue vervain grows in most of the U.S. and much of Canada. It is common throughout Maryland in moist fields and swamps. Attracts bees and is a larval host to the common buckeye butterfly, the verbena moth, and the verbena bud moth.