Leucas zeylanica - Ceylon Leucas

Ceylon Leucas is an erect, annual plant with branched stems 20-60 cm tall. Stems are hairy or bristly-hairy. Leaf-stalk is about 5 mm; leaf blade oblong-lanceshaped, 3.5-5 x 0.5-1 cm, sparsely bristly, densely so on veins and densely yellowish glandular below, base wedge-shaped-narrowed, margin remotely rounded toothed-sawtoothed above base, tip tapering, lateral veins 3 or 4 pairs. Flower-whorls are 1.5 cm in diameter, few flowered, sparsely bristly; bracts linear, mostly shorter than sepal tube, tip somewhat spinescent. Sepal tube is tubular-bell-shaped, slightly curved, basally hairless, slightly corrugate, sparsely bristly at tip outside, minutely bristly inside, veins not prominent, not bristly; mouth oblique, slightly constricted; teeth 8 or 9, almost spine-like, about 1 mm. Flowers are white or white with purple spots, about 1.2 mm; tube slender, straight, slightly enlarged, densely hairy near throat, nearly hairless at base outside, hairy annulate inside. Lower lip is about twice as long as upper lip, spreading, lateral lobes ovate; middle lobe largest, elliptic, wavy on margin. Nutlets are chestnut brown, ellipsoid, subtriquetrous, shiny. Ceylon Leucas is found on seashores, fields, roadsides, sunny waste slopes, at altitudes up to 300 m, in India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Sri Lanka. Flowering: All year.