Botanical name: Leonurus japonicus    Family: Lamiaceae (Mint family)
Synonyms: Leonurus sibiricus Anon., Leonurus artemisia, Leonurus heterophyllus

Chinese Motherwort is an annual or biennial herb with stems erect, 1-4 ft, bristly. Leaf-stalk of stem leaves are 0.5-3 cm, narrowly winged at tip; lower stem leaf blades ovate, base broadly wedge-shaped, 3-palmatipartite; lobes oblong-rhombic to ovate, 2.5-6 × 1.5-4 cm, pinnately divided, above bristly, below hairy, glandular; mid stem leaf blade rhombic, palmatipartite, lobes oblong-linear, base narrow wedge-shaped. Flowers are borne in 8-15-flowered whorls, 2-2.5 cm in across; floral leaves nearly stalkless, linear to linear-lanceshaped, 3-12 x 2-8 mm, entire or toothed; bracteoles spiny, shorter than sepal-cup, about 5 mm. Flowers are stalkless, white or reddish to purplish red, 1-1.2 cm, hairy; tube about 6 mm, upper lip straight, concave, oblong, about 7 x 4 mm, margin entire, fringed with hairs; lower lip slightly shorter, 3-lobed; middle lobe inverted-heart-shaped, tip notched; lateral lobes ovate. Sepal-cup is tubular-bell-shaped, 6-8 mm, finely velvet-hairy; teeth broadly triangular, 2-3 mm, tip spiny. Chinese Motherwort is native to China, India, SE Asia to Russian Far East and N. Australia, at altitudes up to 3400 m. Flowering: June-September.
Medicinal uses: Chinese Motherwort is one of the 50 fundamental herbs used in traditional Chinese medicine, where it is called yimucao, literally "beneficial herb for mothers". It is used in cases of menstrual and delivery disorders caused by blood stasis such as dysmenorrhea and amenorrhea.

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The flower labeled Chinese Motherwort is ...