Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses

FALSE MINT

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Dicliptera brachiata (Pursh ) Spreng.

Wildcat Glades Conservation & Audubon Center, Newton County, Missouri

Annual

Height: 12-28 inches

Family: Acanthaceae - Acanthus Family

Flowering Period: July, August, September,October

Also Called:

Wild mudwort, branched foldwing.

Stems:

Erect, divergently branched, glabrous to sparingly coarse-hairy.

Leaves:

Opposite, simple, broadly elliptic to lanceolate, .8 to 5 inches long, .5 to 2.8 inches wide, sparsely pubescent, veins below sometimes coarse-hairy; margins entire to obscurely toothed, fringed with hair; tip tapering to point or infrequently blunt; base gradually narrowing to point; stalk slender, .4 to 2.8 inches long, narrowly winged, fringed.

Inflorescences:

Cymes, few-flowered, in upper leaf axils, sessile or nearly sessile; each cluster subtended by pair of leaf-like bracts; bracts egg-shaped, 1/5 to 2/5 inch long, (longer than calyx), 1/12 to 1/5 inch wide, coarsely or sparsely hairy; tips tapering to points.

Flowers:

Calyx deeply 5-lobed, (rarely 4-lobed), 1/10 to 1/6 inch long, membranous; lobes narrowly triangular to awl-shaped; corolla 2-lipped, 2/5 to 3/5 inch long, pink or pale lavender to whitish, drying purple, dark spots, especially on lower lip; upper lip erect, entire or shallowly notched; lower lip spreading, usually entire, externally pubescent; stamens 2, united to near mouth of corolla tube, slightly protruding from corolla; filaments sparsely coarse-hairy; style thread-like, 2/5 to 3/5 inch long, coarse-hairy.

Fruits:

Capsule, egg-shaped or nearly circular, 1/6 to 1/4 inch long, flattened, sessile or nearly sessile; seeds 2-4, nearly round, about 1/10 inch in diameter, flattened, dark reddish-brown to black, sparsely covered with minute, spiny, rust-colored hair.

Habitat:

Wooded flood plains, thickets, stream and river banks, lake margins; moist soil.

Distribution:

Principally in southeast quarter of Kansas.

Origin:

Native

False mint flower