Venus' pride

Houstonia purpurea, commonly known as Venus pride or purple bluet, is a small perennial herb of the madder family native to the eastern and central United States, from southern New York and Ohio south to Florida and west to Texas. It produces small clumps of erect, slender, four-angled stems 15-45 cm tall arising from a short rootstock. The opposite, sessile leaves are ovate to lanceolate, 2-5 cm long, with three to five prominent palmate veins and entire margins. From late spring into summer the stems bear small, branched terminal cymes of delicate, four-lobed, salverform flowers. The corolla is 8-14 mm long, pale lilac to deep purple or, less commonly, almost white, with a slender tube and a small ring of hairs in the throat. The species favours rocky open woods, glades and dry slopes, often on calcareous soils.