Citation: L., Sp. Pl. 579 (1753) subsp. amplexicaule.

Synonymy: Not Applicable

Common name: Deadnettle, henbit deadnettle.

Description:
Annual herbs with branches quadrangular, to 30 cm long and mainly from the base, with recurved simple hairs usually with a broader base, mainly along the ridges and increasing on the inflorescence; leaves with the petiole 1-5 cm long; blade broadly ovate, 0.7-2 x 1-2.5 cm, truncate to cordate at the base, crenate or lobed, sparsely hairy.

Inflorescence a thyrse with a peduncle 4-15 cm long or sometimes less distinct on short lateral branches, with sessile cymose part-inflorescences subtended by sessile clasping bracts, with lower internodes between clusters of flowers much elongated; sepals fused to about half their length, multi-veined, 5-7 mm long, regular, with pointed lobes of equal length densely hairy outside; corolla pale-pink to rose and with darker spots, 2-lipped, with tube much longer than both lips, 14-18 mm long, with hairs on the outer surface, with posterior lip short, erect and hooded, with anterior lip narrowly spathulate with 2 lateral lobes broad and scarcely distinct and the broader anterior lobe distinctly 2-lobed; stamens inserted in the throat of the corolla tube, with filaments glabrous; anthers with 2 cells fertile and strongly diverging so that they are above one another in a vertical line, with bristle-like hairs on the back, enclosed in hood of posterior lip; ovary on a thick disk, deeply 4-lobed, with a slender style inserted near the base and curved along the posterior lip of the corolla, with a 2-fid stigma.

Mericarps obovoid-obpyramidal, c. 3 mm long, with an attachment scar narrowly oblong along the base of the 2 lateral keels, rugose.

	Flowering branch and calyx.
Image source: fig. 553D 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. 36; Cunningham et al. (1982) Plants of western New South Wales, p. 572.

Distribution:  Usually a weed in cultivated lands.   All States except the N.T.   New Zealand; native to or an early introduction to most parts of Europe but also into adjoining western Asia and northern Africa. Conservation status: naturalised Flowering time: July — Nov.

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

Biology: No text

Taxonomic notes: Cleistogamous plants of this species with a corolla not longer than the calyx have been recorded from S.Aust. and are sometimes placed in a separate var. clandestinum Reichb.

Author: Not yet available