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Lanceleaf Frogfruit

Phyla lanceolata

Found in oligohaline tidal marshes, tidal swamps, maritime swamps, dune swales and ponds, other marshes, seasonally exposed shores of rivers, ditches. FloraQuest, phone app (app page) What its natural habitat tells you

47
Good

Native to Virginia. How scores work Is it native here?

Profile 76%

Height
6–20 inches
Light
Full sun
Soil moisture
Moist to wet
Will it fit your yard?

At a glance

Life cycle
Perennial

Not yet recorded · Spread · Leaves · Bloom

Bloom: NC species account not read yet.

Spread and leaves: no source found yet.

This plant is missing most of its facts, so Quercus is looking them up in old botany books.

Recorded in 46 Virginia counties.

Natural habitats

Places it grows wild. Not a planting requirement. Each habitat page lists the plants and wildlife also found there.

1 of 7

Swamps

View, Dismal Swamp, North Carolina
Named place / source context. Shown: Great Dismal Swamp, North Carolina, as titled by Museum of Fine Arts Boston; nineteenth-century artistic interpretation, a neighboring state.View, Dismal Swamp, North Carolina, Regis Francois Gignoux, 1850. Public domain. Source record.

Ponds, lakes and their shores

Yellow butterwort beside a moss-hung coastal pond
Regional / representative. Shown: Southern coastal pond margins, Florida and Louisiana to North Carolina; state not identified, a neighboring state.Yellow butterwort beside a moss-hung coastal pond, Marian Ellis Rowan, 1901. Public domain. Source record.

Coastal dunes and beaches

Core Banks dunes, June 2013
Dune grassland. Shown: Core Banks, Cape Lookout, North Carolina, a neighboring state.Core Banks dunes, June 2013, Jarek Tuszyński, June 2013. CC BY-SA 3.0. Source record.

Streams, rivers and their banks

Watauga Falls
Named place / source context. Shown: Watauga Falls, North Carolina, a neighboring state.Watauga Falls, Illustrator/engraver not confidently attributed; reproduced in Zeigler and Grosscup, The Heart of the Alleghanies (1883), 1883. Public domain. Source record.

Coastal tidal marshes (salinity not stated)

Tidal marshes of the Atlantic and Gulf coasts where the source does not say whether the water is fresh, brackish or salt. A stated salinity files the marsh under freshwater tidal marshes or salt and brackish marshes instead.

Freshwater marshes

Open, herb-covered wetlands with fresh, non-tidal water.

Roadsides, fields and disturbed ground

Ground opened by people: roadsides, old fields, pastures, fencerows and lots.

All habitats

Also found with this plant

Wildlife whose habitat models include habitats this plant grows in, in Virginia. Shared habitat, not food. 106 animals.

All wildlife of Virginia

Ecological relationships

Who uses this plant?

What these records mean

4CaterpillarsGenus host records with ranges including VA

Genus host records with ranges including VA · Lippia

  • Automeris ioIo Moth
  • Junonia coeniaCommon Buckeye
  • Manduca rusticaRustic Sphinx
  • Phyciodes phaonPhaon Crescent, Crescentspot
Shropshire & Tallamy 2025, Lepidoptera of North America north of Mexico, ZooKeys 1261 (ODbL)
29BeesSoutheastern regional records

Southeastern regional records · Phyla

Individual names are not available yet.

Noori, Seltmann & Orr 2026, A curated and integrated dataset for exploring global bee-plant interactions (GloBI), Zenodo, CC BY 4.0
0Specialist beesPollen specialists
—BirdsRecorded genus food-resource interactions; not a state feeding claim
Flies 12
  • Archytas analis
  • Eristalis latifrons
  • Exoprosopa fasciata
  • Exoprosopa fascipennis
  • Helophilus latifrons
  • Orthoneura nitida
  • Siphoplagia anomala
  • Spallanzania hesperidarum
  • Sphaerophoria cylindrica
  • Systoechus vulgaris
Show all 12
  • Trichophora ruficauda
  • Tropidia quadrata

Flower visits · Carlinville, Illinois, USA

Adult butterflies / moths 4
  • Ancyloxypha numitor
  • Eurema lisa
  • Limochores taumas
  • Phyciodes tharos

Flower visits · Carlinville, Illinois, USA

Other wasps 5
  • Bicyrtes ventralis
  • Leionotus clypeatus
  • Priononyx atrata
  • Sphex nigricans
  • Sphex vulgaris

Flower visits · Carlinville, Illinois, USA

No records yet · Ants · Beetles · Other insects

Growing and identification

Plant details

Family
Verbenaceae
Flower color
White, yellow or purple

Safety has not been reviewed for this plant; check toxicity and thorns before planting.

Growing sources and scope
  • Flower color · “White, yellow or purple” · Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center
  • Height · “6–20 inches” · Minnesota Wildflowers
  • Life cycle · “Perennial” · Minnesota Wildflowers
  • Light · “Full sun (documented habitat)” · FloraQuest: Carolinas, Georgia (Southeastern Flora Team), phone app (app page) · Carolinas and Georgia
  • Soil · “Moist; Wet (documented habitat)” · FloraQuest: Carolinas, Georgia (Southeastern Flora Team), phone app (app page) · Carolinas and Georgia
Also known as

Lance Leaf Fogfruit; Lance Leaf Frog Fruit; Lippia lanceolata

Conservation status

Virginia rankS5
Global rankG5
VA statusNot verified
Federal statusNot verified

Conservation source Global and federal source

In your garden

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How to check your spot

Sources