FoI
Whitewort
Share Foto info
Whitewort
ative Photo: Prashant Awale
Common name: Whitewort • Malayalam: കരിമ്ഥുമ്ബ Karimthumba • Tamil: பெருதும்பை Peruthumbai
Botanical name: Leucas martinicensis    Family: Lamiaceae (Mint family)
Synonyms: Clinopodium martinicense, Phlomis martinicensis, Stachys fluminensis

Whitewort is an erect annual herb, up to 1 m tall. Usually unbranched stems are finely hairy. Leaves are oppositely arranged, ovate to ovate- lanceshaped, 4-6 × 1.5-3 cm, margins coarsely toothed. Tiny white flowers are borne in interrupted roundish clusters, 1.5-2 cm in diameter, along the stem. In fruit, the clusters grow to 3 cm in diameter. Long thistle-like sepals give the flower-clusters a hairy appearance. Flowers small, white tinged red, slightly protruding, slender, about 8 mm. Tube is about 7 mm, slightly dilated in throat. Lower lip is spreading, with lobes oblong. Nutlets are dark brown, oblong-ovoid, 1.5 mm, shiny. Flowering: September-October.

Identification credit: R. Vijayasankar, Giby Kuriakose Photographed in Pench Reserve Forest, Madhya Pradesh.

• Is this flower misidentified? If yes,