Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
Prostanthera decussata
Common name
Dense Mint-bush
Family
Lamiaceae
Where found
Open forest, woodland, heath, and shrubland, often in rocky soils. Kosciuszko National Park, the mountains to the north, and ACT. Tablelands south of the Hume Highway. Rarely elsewhere. Also on the Newnes Plateau, just north of the area covered by this key.
Notes
Shrub to about 2 m high. Branches densely covered with short and long more or less spreading hairs. The whole plant strongly aromatic. Leaves opposite each other, 0.4–0.7 cm long, 1–3.5 mm wide, moderately thick, moderately covered with stiff, warty, hairs, upper surface dark green, lower surface paler and densely glandular, margins entire and strongly curved to rolled down, tips blunt. Flowers mauve to violet, occasionally pinkish, 6–8 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. Flowering: October–March.
All native plants on unleased land in the ACT are protected.
Rare Vic.
PlantNET description: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Prostanthera~decussata (accessed 30 January, 2021)
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