Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

Melissa officinalis

Flower whorl. Photographer JC Schou, Denmark

Flower whorl and leafy stems. Photographer Michael Wunderli, unknown plac

Plant. Photographer JC Schou, Denmark

Line drawings. USDA NRCS PLANTS Database Britton, N.L., and A. Brown. 1913. An illustrated flora of the northern United States, Canada and the British Possessions. Vol. 3: 137

Common name

Lemon Balm, Common Balm, Balm

Family

Lamiaceae

Where found

Gardens and moist places, particulary along streams and drainage lines. Widespread but uncommon.

Notes

Introduced shrubby perennial herb to 1 m high, becoming slightly woody at the base. Stems 4-angled, densely hairy, somewhat sticky. Leaves lemon-scented when rubbed, opposite each other, 1.5–8 cm long, 10–60 mm wide, covered with dense short and sparse long hairs, and some stalkless and stalked glands, tips somewhat pointed; margins scalloped to toothed, nd with scattered long hairs. Flowers white, yellowish in bud, sometimes ageing to pink or pinkish blue, 8–15 mm long, tubular, 2-lipped, the lower lip 3-lobed; the upper lip 2-lobed. Calyx 7–9 mm long, 2-lipped, the lower lip deeply 2-lobed; the upper lip with 3 broad lobes. Flowers on short stalks, in whorls of 4–12 flowers. Flowers Nov.–March. 

Melissa officinalis subsp. officinalis in NSW. The Council of Heads of Australasian Herbaria does not recognise subspecies (accessed 2 May 2021).

PlantNET description:  http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Melissa~officinalis (accessed 2 May 2021)