I.C. Hedge

Perennial, herbaceous. Stems erect 40-150 cm, sturdy, obtusely guadrangular, unbranched or with few branches, with a ± dense white floccose-lanate indumentum of long eglandular hairs, leafy. Leaves ± green above and white below, ovate to ovate-lanceolate, 5-8 x 2.5-4.5 cm, cordate, crenulate, acute, densely white lanate below; leaves decreasing in size up the stem and transitional into floral leaves and bracts; lower petioles up to 4 cm, less above. Verticillasters many-flowered, mostly clearly distant. Bracts ovate-lanceolate, c. 5 mm. Calyx greyish-green, c. 9 mm long, not bilabiate, densely villous with long eglandular hairs, triangular-campanulate; teeth erect, equal, c. 3 mm, acuminate-spinulose; throat of tube rather densely vinous. Corolla white, pink to pale purple, 10-12 mm; upper lip straight, sericeous; lower lip 3-lobed, longer than upper; tube curved slender. Stamens included under corolla upper lip. Style shortly 2-lobed. Nutlets brown, ovoid, c. 2 x 1.5 mm, apically rounded.

Fl. Per.: June-September.

Type: (Kashmir) Hirpour, Jacquemont 632 (K, P).

Distribution: Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kashmir, NW India.

Related to Stachys emodi but with a much denser white-lanate indumentums on the under leaf surface, generally broader leaves and smaller corollas. The two species have very similar distributions in our area.