Plant: annual herb; taprooted; stems 15-70 cm tall, branched throughout

Leaves: mostly sessile, the basal ones with winged petioles 1-2 cm long; blades obovate to elliptic, overall 2-4 cm long, 1-6 cm wide; margins deeply palmately 3-lobed or shallowly pinnately lobed or toothed

INFLORESCENCE: bracts leaf-like

Flowers: pedicels 1.5-4(-12) mm long; calyx actinomorphic, 5-10 mm long, the lobes longer than tube, the apices spinose; corolla 7-15 mm long, pale bluish with darker lines

Fruit: NUTLETS ca. 2-3 mm long and 1 mm wide, brown or greenish-tan, the apices glabrous or pubescent

REFERENCES: Christy, Charlotte M. 2003. Lamiaceae. J. Ariz. - Nev. Acad. Sci. Volume 35(2).

Duration: Annual

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Forb/Herb

General: Small annual, several stems 20-50 cm tall, branching, pubescent with white curly hairs.

Leaves: Broadly lobed near base and to middle of stem, 3-5 lobed, nearly to midrib, upper leaves 3-parted, 1.5-3.5 cm long; irregularly and shallowly toothed toward apex.

Flowers: Slender pedicels, sparsely pubescent 4-12 mm long; campanulate calyx 5-6 mm long, teeth lance-subulate, about equal; corolla 7-15 mm long, white often with purple lines or spots at base of lobes, pubescent without, tube 1-2 mm long, lower lip 5-8 mm long.

Fruits: Nutlets 2.5 mm, high reticulately ridged and spreading-puberulent.

Ecology: Found in sandy or silty soil along arroyos, washes or stream banks below 4,000 ft (1219 m); flowers March-May.

Distribution: s TX to se CA; widely distributed in tropical and subtropical America.

Notes: Distinguished by its white corolla appearing only single lipped, with the upper lip deeply cleft. Var. depressum (syn. var densum) is found in the US Southwest.

Ethnobotany: No known uses.

Etymology: Teucrium, perhaps from the Greek teukrion, for Teucer, an ancestor of the Trojans, while cubense means of or from Cuba.

Synonyms: None

Editor: SBuckley, 2010