Flora of New Zealand Series

mint weed

Annual, aromatic herb; stems branched, to c. 60 cm high. Lvs petiolate. Lamina 2.5-4 cm × 3-8 mm, narrow-oblong or linear, with minute oil glands, hairy below and often greyish, glabrous or nearly so above, entire or remotely denticulate; base attenuate; apex obtuse. Infl. to 13 cm long, open, puberulent, generally simple; fls shortly pedicellate, in whorls of 1-3; bracts to c. 1/2 calyx tube, densely hairy and with oil globules. Calyx 5-6 mm long, accrescent, campanulate, densely hairy on nerves, and with oil glands; teeth ± ovate, mucronate. Corolla c. 8 mm long, pale mauve; limb strongly puberulent outside; upper lip hooded and somewhat curved. Stamens included; connective of fertile arm ± = filament; sterile connective arm flattened. Nutlets 10-11 mm long, broad-ellipsoid, shining, weakly trigonous.

S.: Canterbury and Otago.

Rocky Mountains and Great Plains, U.S.A. 1957

Gardens and waste places, especially around railway yards; plants seed prolifically and the sp. will probably become more common.

FL Dec-Apr.

Possibly poisonous (Connor 1977).