Plant: perennial herb; stems single or several from a crown, 25-90 cm tall

Leaves: petioles 2-5 cm long; blades 3.5-5 (-10) cm long, 4-5.5(-10) cm wide, orbicular to broadly ovate or cordate, palmately lobed and irregularly toothed, the uppermost narrowly elliptic to linear-lanceolate and merely toothed or entire.

INFLORESCENCE: bracts petiolate, much exceeding the flowers

Flowers: calyx 3-4(-7) mm long, the lower two lobes broader and reflexed; corolla red-purple, the lower lip 8-10 mm long, whitish with red-purple spots, with an internal ring of hairs near its mid point

Fruit: NUTLETS ca. 2 mm long, tan to dark brown

Misc: Shady, moist areas in ponderosa pine and Gambel oak communities; 2000-2300 m (6500-7500 ft); Jun-Oct

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

Frequent throughout the state in waste places, fallow fields, and open woods and along roadsides and fences.

Duration: Perennial

Lifeform: Forb/Herb

General: Introduced perennial, 30-100 cm tall; stems several, erect, puberulent, especially on the angles; plants arising from a thick rhizome or caudex; roots fibrous.

Leaves: Cauline (the lower ones soon deciduous), opposite, simple, palmately 3-cleft, 5-10 cm long and wide, middle and upper blades progressively smaller and less cleft, distinctly palmately veined, strigose above, puberulent and paler below, margins of the ultimate segments entire, coarsely toothed, or incised; petiole equal in length to the blade.

Flowers: Inflorescence a verticil of 1 to several flowers arising in the leaf axils; calyx 4-6 mm long, hirsute, the teeth usually spreading or the upper ones reflexed at maturity, lower teeth longer than the upper; corolla 7-8 mm long, pink to rose-purple; stamens 2; flowers April-September.

Fruits: Nutlets 4, 3-angled, smooth, truncate and pubescent at the apex.

Ecology: Disturbed sites, lakeshores, riverbanks, and other moist habitats; 1800-2300 m (6000-7500 ft); Coconino, Mohave, Navajo, and Yavapai counties; widely distributed throughout North America.

Notes: Motherwort is a valuable medicinal plant and is used by many Eastern tribes to treat disorders specific to the female reproductive system.

Editor: Springer et al. 2008

Fibrous-rooted perennial, the ±clustered stems 4-15 dm, retrorsely short-hairy on the angles (or subglabrous); lvs all cauline, the main ones with palmately cleft and again coarsely toothed blade 5-10 cm, the petiole about as long, the middle and upper gradually reduced and less cleft; fls subsessile; cal-tube firm, 5-angled, 3-4 mm, the lobes about equaling the tube, the 2 lower ones deflexed; cor 8-12 mm, white or pale pink, the upper lip conspicuously white-villous, the tube with a ring of hairs inside; 2n=18. Native of Asia, formerly cult. as a home-remedy, now established as a casual weed over much of the U.S. and adj. Can. June-Aug.

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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