I.C. Hedge

Perennial, suffruticose, clump-forming, much branched. Stems slender, quadrangular, erect, 20-50 (-70) cm, with a fine short eglandular indumentum. Leaves oblong to ovate-lanceolate, 10-25 x 5-10 mm, entire to clearly lobed, cuneate, acute, green, on both surfaces pilose with short hairs, below with numerous sessile oil globules. Verticillasters 2-, rarely up to 6-flowered, clearly distant. Bracts subulate, spiny, 3-5 mm. Calyx tubular-obtriangular, 18-10 mm, ± densely covered with fine short hairs and sessile oil globules, not bilabiate; teeth triangular, c. 4 mm, equal, spinulose, erect-spreading; tube glabrous at throat. Corolla pink, 15-20 mm, shortly pilose; tube narrow straight, c. 10 mm, annulate; upper lip ± straight, entire. Stamens 4, didynamous, usually curved and projecting below corolla upper lip; thecae slightly hairy. Nutlets c. 2.5 x 1.5 mm, trigonous, apically truncate.

Fl. Per.: June-August.

Type: In Tibetiae occidentalis alt. 10-14000', T. Thomson (E, K).

Distribution: Pakistan, Kashmir, NW India, W. Tibet.

This is a very distinct species. The characters of the spiny bracts and the triquetrous-truncate nutlets are unusual in the genus. One field note remarks that the plant has "a disagreable odour". Widespread and common, reaching high altitudes (to 4800 m) in Kashmir.