Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

Prostanthera densa

Flower and leaves. Australian Plant Image Index, photographer Murray Fagg, Australian National Botanic Gardens, Canberra, ACT

Common name

hairy mint-bush

Family

Lamiaceae

Where found

Forest, shrubland, and coastal headlands. Sydney area and north. Jervis Bay to west of Tomerong. Occasionally elsewhere.

Notes

Shrub to 2 m high. Branches, leaves and calyces densely covered with long, spreading hairs. The whole plant aromatic. Leaves opposite each other, 1–1.5 cm long, 7–12 mm wide, almost triangular, dark green above and paler below, margins usually strongly curved down, tips rounded to blunt. Flowers pale mauve to mauve, with orange markings in the throat, 12–15 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: sparingly throughout the year.

Vulnerable Australia. Vulnerable NSW. Provisions of the Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016 No 63 relating to the protection of protected plants generally also apply to plants that are a threatened species.

NSW Threatened Species profile:  http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/threatenedSpeciesApp/profile.aspx?id=10676 (accessed 7 January 2021)

PlantNET description:  http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Prostanthera~densa  (accessed 7 January 2021)