In New Flora of the British Isles Edition 3 (2010), Clive Stace says that the plants in western Britain are referred to as ssp hybrida by some taxonomists to distinguish them from the smaller plants in the Brecks for example. However these difference are not constant so what he is really saying is that they are all really the same perhaps with local ecological variations or forms. There is a great deal of this plant on the Great Orme which he now rates as an RR rather than RRR rarity as before.

Veronica spicata is dotted about in Wales with a good concentration here on the Great Orme and another around the severn estuary. The next reasonable concentration is in the Brecks where the plant was once thought to be a different and rarer sub species. Other than those places it is found here and there in north west England and on the north east coast but there is little in Scotland and none in Ireland

LHS: Great Orme, North Wales 29th June 2007 RHS: Great Orme 18th July 2002

Amended on February 5th 2005, 18th February 2005, updated 23rd April 2006, updated 21st February 2012