Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

Prostanthera caerulea

Flowers and leaves. Australian Plant Image Index, photographer Murray Fagg, Royal Botanic Gardens Mt Tomah, Blue Mouintains

Flowering stem. Photographer Don Wood, Australian National Botanic Gardens, Canberra, ACT

Common name

Lilac Mint Bush

Family

Lamiaceae

Where found

Wet forest, heath, rocky areas, and gullies. Coastal. Ranges north from Lake Burragorang. One record east of Bathurst.

Notes

Shrub to 3 m high. Branches 4-ridged, densely covered with more or less stalkless glands. Young stems hairy, becoming sparsely hairy with short, curled hairs on the ridges. The whole plant slightly aromatic. Leaves opposite each other, 1.8–6.5 cm long, 6–22 mm wide, mid-green, hairless, margins flat and slightly to strongly toothed, tips blunt to somewhat pointed. Flowers white to bluish mauve, 10–12 mm long, with a bell-shaped tube, 2-lipped, 5-lobed. Calyx 2-lobed. Flowers single at the base of paired leaves, forming leafy clusters 20-80 mm long. Flowering: September–November.

PlantNET description:  http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Prostanthera~caerulea  (accessed 3 February, 2021)