In wet woods and moist roadsides. Rare. Probably introduced.
General: Perennial, 20-70 cm tall; stems solitary or few, simple or few-branched; herbage spreading-hairy; rhizomes slender.
Leaves: Cauline, opposite, simple, ovate, lance-ovate, or elliptic, 1-4 cm long, 1-1.5 cm wide, surfaces sparsely pubescent, paler beneath, margins entire or obscurely toothed; petioles short.
Flowers: Inflorescence a dense verticil, appearing spike-like, mostly 4-10 cm long, the lowest whorl of flowers often interrupted; calyx tube 5-8 mm long, the teeth 2-4 mm long, green at the base, whitish to rose-purple towards the teeth; corolla 10-15 mm long, white to faintly pinkish; stamens 4, the upper ones exserted 1-2 mm beyond the upper lip, the lower ones slightly shorter but still exserted; flowers July-October.
Fruits: Nutlets 4, ovate, smooth.
Ecology: Ponderosa pine forests, woodlands, shady habitats; 1500- 2100 m (5000-7000 ft); Cochise, Coconino, and Pima counties; northeastern and northwestern Canada, northeastern, north-central, northwestern, and southwestern U.S.
Notes: na
Editor: Springer et al. 2008
Erect perennial 2-5 dm from short stolons; lvs ovate or lance-ovate to ovate-oblong, 2-4 cm, entire or with a few low teeth, on petioles to 1 cm, or the upper subsessile; fls numerous in a dense, subglobose, terminal, head-like infl, or in vigorous plants with 1 or 2 smaller glomerules in the uppermost axils, mingled with numerous setaceous, hirsute bracts about as long as the cal; cal 9-10 mm, hirsute, the lips nearly as long as the tube, the upper lip cleft half way, the lower cleft to the base; cor rose-purple to pink or white, 12-15 mm; style-branches short, unequal, the upper subulate, the lower longer and wider; 2n=20. Upland woods; Nf. and Que. to Man., s. to N.C., Tenn., and Kans., and scattered in w. U.S.; also widespread in Europe. Plants from the s. part of our range may be intr. from Europe. (Clinopodium v.)
Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.
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