Βερόνικα η κισσόφυλλη
Etymology of Veronica hederifolia: The genus's name "Veronica" derives from Saint Veronica, the woman who gave Jesus a cloth to wipe his face while carrying the cross on the way to Calvary, and so named because the markings on some species supposedly resemble those on her sacred handkerchief. The epithet "hederifolia", which is Latin comes from "hedera + folia", meaning "bearing Hedera-like leaves", because in the case of the 3-lobed plant, it resembles the leaf of Hedera.
There are nine Veronica species/taxa growing on their own in the Cypriot habitat.
Veronica hederifolia is encountered in central mountainous, and south-eastern Cyprus. It is encountered at altitudes up to 1375. The specimens in the pictures come from Prodromos (Lemesos district), at an altitude of 1375 metres. The species in Cyprus is usually flowered between December and June.
How to identify Veronica hederifolia:
Veronica hederifolia's flower has blue color as Veronica bozakmanii, arvensis, persica, polita, and trifyllos. Trifyllos has unique upper leaves resembling a human hand. Arvensis has very small flowers of around 2-3 mm, for the rest, it's 4-6 mm. Persica's pedicels are up to 3 cm long and are the longest ones, for the rest they are much shorter. Bozakmanii is encountered only in Troodos at an altitude of 1700 metres, hederifolia is found up to 1375 metres. Finally, polita's leaf is 7-lobed, whilst hederifolia's is 3-5-lobed; polita's petals have 5 darker blue veins.
