Northeast Wetland Flora
Field Office Guide to Plant Species
Scutellaria galericulata L.
- Family: Mint (Labiatae)
- Flowering: June-September
- Field Marks: The distinguishing features of this skullcap are its slender rhizomes, its flowers 3/4-1 1/4 inches long, and the recurved hairs on the stems, leaves, and leaf stalks.
- Habitat: Wet meadows, swamps, damp thickets.
- Habit: Perennial herb from slender rhizomes.
- Stems: Upright, unbranched, square, up to 3 feet tall, with recurved hairs on the angles.
- Leaves: Opposite, simple, lanceolate to narrowly ovate, pointed at the tip, tapering or rounded at the base, smooth above, hairy beneath with recurved hairs, sparingly toothed; lower leaves with stalks up to 2 inches long, with recurved hairs; upper leaves sessile.
- Flowers: Solitary in the axils of the leaves, blue, on stalks up to 1/8 inch long.
- Sepals: 5, green, 2-lipped, united below, up to 1 1/4 inches long, with a distinct cap-like protuberance about the middle.
- Petals: 5, blue with white spots, 2-lipped, united below to form a tube, up to 1 1/4 inches long.
- Stamens: 4, attached to the tube of the petals.
- Pistils: Ovary superior, 4-parted.
- Fruits: Nutlets olive-green, obscurely warty, up to 1/10 inch long.
- Notes: This species has sometimes been known as S. epilobiifolia.
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