Citation: Savi, Fl. Pis. 2:63 (1798) subsp. glandulosa (Req.)P.W. Ball, J. Linn. Soc.(Bot.) 65:347 (1972).

Synonymy: Melissa nepeta L., Sp. Pl. 593 (1753); Thymus glandulosus Req., Annls Sci. nat. sér. 1, 5:386 (1825); Calamintha glandulosa (Req.)Benth., Labiat. gen. spec. 387 (1834).

Common name: Lesser calamint.

Description:
Perennial herbs to 70 cm tall, little to moderately branched, with quadrangular branches, with short and long spreading hairs and few scattered sessile glands; leaves with the petiole 0.3-1 cm long; blade broadly ovate to almost orbicular, 1-2.5 x 0.8-2.5 cm, with an obtuse to rounded apex, truncate to abruptly cuneate at the base, crenate-serrate to entire, more or less densely covered with short and long simple hairs and scattered sessile glands.

Inflorescence a thyrse without a peduncle, with cymose part-inflorescences with few to 15 flowers on pedicels to 10 mm long, with internodes between the flowering nodes elongated at least in the lower parts, with bracts subtending part-inflorescences leaf-like in lower parts; sepals at least three-quarters of their length connate, 13-veined, 3.5-5 mm long, vaguely 2-lipped, with a dorsal lip with 3 short subequal lobes, with the anterior lip with 2 slender pointed lobes at least twice as long as the posterior ones, with scattered hairs and sessile glands outside, with a ring of long hairs in the throat; corolla lilac to mauve, rarely white, 2-lipped, with lips shorter than the tube, 10-12 mm long, with hairs on the outer surface and in the throat, with posterior lip erect, more or less hooked and scarcely 2-lobed, with the anterior lip with 3 lobes of about equal length but central one distinctly broader; stamens inserted in the throat of the corolla tube, with filaments glabrous; anthers with 2 cells fertile and slightly diverging, glabrous, under the hood of the posterior lip of the corolla; ovary on a thick disc, deeply 4-lobed, with a slender style inserted near the base and curved along the posterior lip of the corolla, with often unequally 2-fid stigma.

Mericarps broadly obovoid, c. 1 mm long, scarcely keeled on the inside, with an attachment scar ovate to triangular, basal, smooth.

	Flowering branch and calyx.
Image source: fig. 553C in Jessop J.P. & Toelken H.R. (Ed.) 1986. Flora of South Australia (4th edn).

Published illustration: Ross-Craig (1967) Drawings Brit. Pl. 24:pl. 13.

Distribution:  Suburban weed.   Native to south and central Europe extending to Caucasia. Conservation status: naturalised Flowering time: Jan. — March.

SA Distribution Map based on current data relating to specimens held in the State Herbarium of South Australia

Biology: No text

Author: Not yet available