Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses - Drummond's false-pennyroyal

DRUMMOND'S FALSE-PENNYROYAL

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Hedeoma drummondii Benth.

Russell County, Kansas

Perennial

Height: 4-16 inches

Family: Lamiaceae - Mint Family

Flowering Period: May, June, July, August, September

Stems:

Square in cross section, decumbent to ascending or erect, simple or branched from base, finely hirsute.

Leaves:

Cauline, opposite, simple; stipules absent; petiole short; blade linear to elliptic-oblong, 3/10 to 7/10 inch long, 1/25 to 1/6 inch wide, base attenuate, margins entire, tip obtuse, lower surface finely hirsute, upper surface glabrous or glabrate.

Inflorescences:

Axillary cymes, sometimes flowers solitary; bracts leaf-like.

Flowers:

Calyx bilaterally symmetric, 1/5 to 3/10 inch, 2-lipped, tube 13-nerved, throat with distinct ring of simple hairs, lobes 5, subulate, finely hirsute, tip acuminate to bristle-like, not spinulose and hooked; corolla blue to lavender, 3/10 to 3/5 inch, lower lip 3-lobed, middle lobe larger than lateral lobes; upper lip purple-spotted or not, entire or 2-lobed, flat or hood-like; stamens 2, included, ascending under upper lip, filaments straight; style 1, basal; stigmas 2.

Fruits:

Schizocarps comprising (1-)4 mericarps; mericarps brown, oblong-ovoid, 1/20 to 1/15 inch, glabrous; seeds 1 per mericarp.

Habitat:

Rocky, mixed-grass and shortgrass prairies, rock outcrops, and gravelly slopes

Distribution:

West half of Kansas

Origin:

Native

Uses:

Native Americans treated headaches by crushing the aromatic stems of this plant and inhaling the mint-like odor.

Comments:

Hedeoma, sweet scent and drummondii, for English botanist James Drummond.