Wood basil
Scientific name: Clinopodium vulgare L.
Family: Lamiaceae
MORPHOLOGY
Habit and dimensions: A perennial herbaceous plant, odorless or weakly aromatic, typically 30-70 cm tall, with a thin creeping rhizome.
Stems: Erect-ascending stems, simple or sparsely branched, softly velvety with spreading hairs.
Leaves: Opposite leaves, pubescent, shortly petiolate (2-6 mm), spaced between internodes, with an oval-oblong (15-23 x 32-46 mm) leaf blade, sub-obtuse at the apex, entire or sparsely crenulate at the margin.
Flowers: Inflorescence grouped in dense, globular, compact pseudo-verticils, terminal and axillary, with 10-20 hermaphrodite flowers, surrounded by an involucre of linear bracts, long-ciliate-plumose, subequal to the calyx. Calyx cylindrical, hairy, often purple, not swollen at the base, slightly curved, with 13 marked nerves and with the 3 upper teeth shorter than the 2 lower ones, lanceolate. Corolla pink-purple, rarely white, 12-14 mm long, with the upper lip flat and unmarginated, the lower one trilobed. Blooms from May to August.
Fruits and seeds: The fruit is a tetra-achene (schizocarp), consisting of 4 oval, brown nutlets, with a whitish hilum.
DISTRIBUTION AND HABITAT
Present throughout Italy. It grows in clearings and woodland edges, dry meadows from sea level up to 1500 m.
USE
The leaves and flowering tops have a tonic, stimulating, and carminative action. Before taking any plant-based product (medicinal or non-medicinal) for therapeutic or similar purposes, it is always advisable to consult with a doctor.
Photo: under the free license of Saxifraga and Ed Stikvoort, Marijke Verhagen, Rutger Barendse
