穗花荆芥 sui hua jing jie

Betonica laevigata D. Don, Prodr. Fl. Nepal. 110. 1825; Nepeta spicata Bentham; N. spicata var. incana H. Léveillé.

Stems 20-80 cm, white pubescent. Petiole 2-12 mm, white villous; leaf blade ovate to triangular-cordate, 2.1-6 × 1.5-4.2 cm, adaxially sparsely white pubescent, abaxially gray and densely white pubescent, base cordate to subtruncate, margin crenate-serrate, apex acute or rarely obtuse. Spikes terminal, cylindric; bracts purplish red apically, linear, white villous. Calyx tubular, ca. 6-8 × 2 mm; teeth narrowly awned-lanceolate, as long as tube, posterior teeth slightly longer than anterior, margin densely white villous, dilated in fruit. Corolla blue-purple, ca. 1.5 × as long as calyx; tube ca. 1.5 mm in diam., to 5 mm in diam. at throat; lobes of upper lip circular-ovate, ca. 2 × 2 mm, middle lobe of lower lip oblate, ca. 3 × 5.5 mm. Nutlets gray-green, ovoid, ca. 1.5 × 1 mm, very shiny. Fl. Jul-Aug, fr. Sep-Nov.

Grasslands, shrub-grasslands, grassy slopes, coniferous and mixed forest margins, forests; 2300-4100 m. Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan [Afghanistan, India, Nepal]

Used medicinally as a diaphoretic.