Duration: Perennial

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Forb/Herb

General: Perennial herb to subshrub, 25-50 cm tall, from a woody base; stems many, erect or ascending, branching near the base, covered with curled or crisped hairs.

Leaves: Opposite and subsessile or on petioles to 2 mm long; blades ovate to oblong, 5-15 mm long and 2-8 mm wide, the lower leaves faintly and distantly serrulate and upper leaves often entire; both surfaces hispidulous with curved grayish hairs, the lower surface also with moderately prominent veins.

Flowers: Purple, in several-flowered verticels at leaf axils, each flower on a slender pedicel 1-4 mm long; calyx tube 4-5 mm long, slightly arcuate and a little swollen near the base in fruit, with prominent, hispidulous nerves; calyx tube topped with 5 teeth, these linear-subulate and reddish or purplish, the upper 3 teeth about 2 mm long and the lower pair 2-3 mm long; corolla bilabiate, purplish, the corolla tube about the same length as the calyx tube, hirsutulous on the outside and nearly glabrous within, and the corolla lobes about equaling or slightly surpassing the calyx teeth.

Fruits: Nutlets 1 mm long.

Ecology: Found on hillsides and mountain slopes from 2,000-8,000 ft (610-2438 m); flowers April-September.

Notes: Told apart from the H. nana complex by the corolla tube being hairless on the inside, and being a taller, slightly woodier plant, with stems 25-50 cm long, erect, and rather stiff. Also the calyx tube is not as strongly swollen (gibbous) at the base as H. nana; the leaves (especially the lower leaves) are more likely to have toothed edges; and the corollas are longer, usually at least 1 cm long, compared to H. nana with 6-9 mm corollas.

Ethnobotany: Unknown, but other species in the genus have uses.

Etymology: Hedeoma is from the Greek hedus, sweet, and osme, odor, an ancient name for a strongly aromatic mint; oblongifolia means oblong leaf.

Synonyms: Hedeoma piperita var. oblongifolia, Hedeoma thymoides var. oblongifolia

Editor: SBuckley 2010, AHazelton 2017