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Shrubby Mint
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Shrubby Mint
ative Photo: Tabish
Common name: Shrubby Mint, Shrubby Elsholtzia, Ji Gu Chai • Nepali: सानो सिलाम Sano Silam
Botanical name: Elsholtzia fruticosa    Family: Lamiaceae (mint family)

Shrubby mint is a shrub with branches yellow- or purple-brown, with broadly elliptic-lanceshaped leaves which are narrowed below to a very short leaf-stalk, and with long narrow spikes of tiny white hairy flowers. Flower-spikes are strongly aromatic, 10-25 cm long and up to 8 mm broad, with lanceshaped bracts. Flower are 3-4 mm long, densely hairy like the much shorter calyx. Leaves are 8-16 cm, saw-toothed, glandular, finely hairy. Stems are mostly 1-3 m, with grey fibrous bark on older stems which peels off in strips. Shrubby mint is found in the Himalayas, from Uttarakhand to SW China, at altitudes of 1500-2400 m. Flowering: September-October.

Identification credit: Tabish Photographed in Dhanaulti & Govindghat-Ghangria trail, Uttarakhand.

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