Leucas prostrata

Leucas prostrata (Hook.f.) Gamble, Fl. Madras 1154 1924. (syn: Leucas hirta var. prostrata Hook.f.);

Prostrate or ascending herbs, with knotty root-stock and several branches from it; branches densely tawny hispid, often rooting on the nodes, hairs stiff and spreading. Leaves upto 2.5 x 1.5 cm, ovate, obtuse, crenate, ciliate, rounded at base, tawny hispid with bristle-like, stiff spreading hairs, lateral nerves 4-5 pairs, not oblique; petioles upto 1 cm long. Flower-whorls ca 1.8 cm in diam., solitary, terminal. Bracts upto 7 mm long, about as long as calyx, subulate or linear-lanceolate, ciliate, hairy both sides with bristle-like hairs. Calyx-tube 6-8 mm long, turbinate, inconspicuously ribbed, densely hirsute; mouth truncate; villi as long as teeth; teeth 10, 2-3 mm long, subequal, stellately spreading, stiff, ciliate with stiff hairs. Corolla-tube as long as calyx-tube or little exserted; upper lip densely bearded with white hairs, smaller than lower lip; lower lip 3-lobed. Nutlets ca 3 mm long, obovate-oblong, smooth, dusty yellowish in colour.

Flowering and fruiting: July-November

Grasslands

Western Ghats

(Attributions- Dr. N Sasidharan (Dr. B P Pal Fellow), Kerala Forest Research Institute, Peechi)