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Spiked Mint
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Spiked Mint
P Native Photo: Prashant Awale
Common name: Spiked Mint • Manipuri: Tekta • Nepali: सानो बन सिलाम Sano ban silam
Botanical name: Elsholtzia stachyodes    Family: Lamiaceae (Mint family)
Synonyms: Elsholtzia incisa, Elsholtzia major, Mentha blanda

Spiked Mint is a herb up to 1.2 m tall, characterized by slender spikes of white flowers, at branch-ends or lateral, up to 5 cm long, 4 mm wide. Spikes form panicles; verticillasters contiguous or separate; indumentum as on stem. Bracts are linear subulate, 1-2 mm. Calyx is about 1-2 mm in flower, urn-shaped; teeth narrow triangular. Flower are white, 1.5-3 mm. Stamens do not protrude. Stems are rather slender, much branched, quadrangular, with eglandular white retrorse hairs. Leaves are broadly ovate, about 3 x 2 cm, coarsely rounded toothed to sawtoothed, wedge-shaped, pointed, densely gland-dotted on lower surface. Leaves narrow into wings on leaf-stalk up to 3 cm. Nutlets are oblong. Spiked Mint is found in the Himalayas, from Kashmir to NE India, Burma, China, at altitudes of 800-1800 m.

Identification credit: Nidhan Singh Photographed eroute to Rolla at Great Himalayan National Park, Himachal Pradesh.

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