I.C. Hedge & A. Paton

Perennial prostrate suffruticose herb with a woody rootstock. Stems 5-30 cm, the longer ones rooting at intervals, prostrate-procumbent, slender, round-quadrangular, leafy, much branched; indumentum of very long dense mostly patent eglandular hairs and above with glandular hairs. Leaves 6-14 x 6-11 mm, ovate to broadly ovate, regularly crenate, cuneate, acute or obtuse; indumentum dense with numerous long glandular and eglandular hairs, abaxial surface with sessile glands. Petiole 2-11 mm. Inflorescence 4-sided, condensed, abbreviated, terminal or lateral; flowers subtended by elliptic to broadly elliptic, 6-13 x 3-6 mm bracts which are entire, cuneate, acute, purple or green, thin-textured, imbricate, cucullate and densely glandular-pilose. Pedicels 2.5-5 mm, erect, ± flattened. Calyx 1.5-2 mm, with a small sometimes purplish scutellum, enlarging in fruit to 4 mm with a 5 mm high scutellum; indumentum similar to that of the indumentum axis. Corolla 23-31 mm, yellow to purplish, spreading-erect or erect, externally glandular- and eglandular-pilose; tube 18-25 mm. Nutlets smooth with adpressed white hairs, grey-black, 1.5 x 1 mm.

Fl. Per.: June-July.

Holotype: Afghanistan, Jaji: in jugo Peiwar Kotal, c. 2700 m, Rechinger 32265 (W! isotype E!).

Distribution: E. Afghanistan, Pakistan.

A much branched prostrate plant with similarities both to Scutellaria edelbergii and Scutellaria prostrata. It appears to be distinct on account of its habit and small regularly crenate leaves with a prominent dense indumentum of relatively long glandular and eglandular hairs. It is often to be found in coniferous or broad-leaved woodland.

The Aitchison specimen cited above was named in Aitchison’s flora of the Kurram Valley (J. Linn. Soc. 19: 183. 1881) as “Scutellaria glutinosa Benth. var. ?”. Scutellaria glutinosa is a frequent species in E. Afghanistan but to date has not been collected on the Pakistan side of the border. As the name implies, it is a very glandular species.