Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

Plectranthus verticillatus

Flowers and leaves. Australian Plant Image Index, photographer Murray Fagg, Seven Mile Beach National Park near Berry

Flowering stem. Australian Plant Image Index, photographer Murray Fagg, Seven Mile Beach National Park near Berry

Common name

Swedish Ivy

Family

Lamiaceae

Where found

Garden escape. Coastal north from Ulladulla.

Notes

Introduced perennial herb to about 0.25 m high or prostrate, rooting at the nodes, semi-fleshy. Stems 4-angled, almost hairless to hairy with short minute hairs, usually sticky, with red stalkless glands. Leaves pleasantly aromatic when rubbed, opposite each other, 1.6–4 cm long, 12–40 mm wide, thin-textured, both surfaces more or less hairless to hairy with minute hairs, more densely hairy on the veins on the lower surface, with conspicuous red to brown stalkless glands on the lower surface, margins with rounded teeth or shallowly scalloped, with 3–6 pairs of teeth, tips pointed to rounded. Flowers white to pale mauve with a few mauve spots on the upper lip, or freely speckled with purple, about 10 mm long, tubular, the tube slightly curved, 2-lipped, the lower lip entire; the upper lip 3- or 4-lobed. Flowers in elongated clusters. Flowering: throughout the year.

PlantNET description:  http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Plectranthus~verticillatus  (accessed 1 February, 2021)