Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

Prostanthera junonis

Common name

Somersby mintbush

Family

Lamiaceae

Where found

Open forest, woodland, shrubland, and disturbed sites. Mostly west of Gosford and north from there.

Notes

Shrub to 1 m high, sprawling or straggling. Branches moderately covered with long hairs. Non-aromatic. Leaves opposite each other, 0.4–1 cm long, 4–5 mm wide, often appearing more or less triangular when the margins are strongly curved down, surfaces more or less hairy, moderately covered with spreading hairs, upper surface dull green, lower surface paler, and sparsely to moderately glandular, margins entire and at least partly curved down, tips blunt. Flowers purple to mauve or almost white, with brown spots in the throat, 7–12 mm long, with a bell-shaped tube, 2-lipped, 5-lobed. Calyx 2-lobed. Flowers single at the base of paired leaves, in clusters. Flowering: spring. 

Very difficult to identify when not flowering.

Endangered Australia. Endangered NSW. Provisions of the NSW 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 with photos:  http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/threatenedSpeciesApp/profile.aspx?id=10678 (accessed 7 January 2021)

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