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Aquatic and Wetland Vascular Plants of the Northern Great Plains

Scutellaria L. -- Skullcap

Erect to spreading, rhizomatous and sometimes stoloniferous perennials. Leaves subsessile or petioled, the blades ovate to lanceolate or elliptic, nearly entire to serrate, thin-textured. Flowers blue or blue with white markings, rarely pink or white, borne singly (paired at the nodes) in the axils of middle and upper leaves or borne in axillary racemes, short-pedicelled; calyx 2-lipped, not toothed, with a rounded protuberance or pouch on the upper side, the 2 calyx lips separating at maturity to release the enclosed nutlets; corolla 2-lipped, pubescent on the outer surface, the upper lip concave and hoodlike, the lower lip nearly flat, 3-lobed, the tube straight or curved upward; stamens 4, ascending into the upper corolla lip. Nutlets ovoid, golden-brown, verrucose, raised on a gynophore.

References:  

Epling, C.  1942.  The American species of Scutellaria. Univ. 
     Calif. Publ. Bot. 20:1-146.

Leonard, E. C.  1927.  The North American species of Scutellaria.  	
     Contr.  U. S. Natl. Herb. 22:703-748.

Lead	Characteristic	Go To
1	Flowers paired at the nodes, borne in the axils of normal leaves; corolla 15-24 mm long.	S. galericulata
1	Flowers in elongate, bracteate racemes which are axillary or at the tips of axillary branches; corolla 5-8 mm long.	S. lateriflora

41. Lamiaceae, the Mint Family

5. Scutellaria L. -- Skullcap

1. Scutellaria galericulata L. -- Marsh skullcap

2. Scutellaria lateriflora L. -- Blue skullcap

Return to Family -- Lamiaceae - The Mint Family
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