Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

Prunella vulgaris

Flower head with leafy bracts. Australian Plant Image Index, photographer Murray Fagg, Kosciuszko National Park

Flowering stems. Photographer Don Wood, Mungerarie State Forest west of Moruya

Line drawing. USDA NRCS PLANTS Database: Britton, N.L., and A. Brown. 1913. An illustrated flora of the northern United States, Canada and the British Possessions. Vol. 3: 115.

Common name

Self-heal, Heal All

Family

Lamiaceae

Where found

Woodland, pastures, disturbed areas, roadsides, moist sites, and stream banks. Widespread.

Notes

Introduced perennial herb to 0.5 m high, often sprawling to prostrate, often rooting at the lower nodes. Stems 4-angular, almost hairless except for a few hairs mainly near the nodes. Leaves aromatic when rubbed, opposite each other, 1.5–6 cm long, 7–25 mm wide, surfaces with scattered coarse hairs, tips blunt to somewhat pointed, margin entire to obscurely toothed. Flowers deep purple-blue to mauve or pink, 8–12 mm long, tubular, with 5 lobes forming 2 lips. Flowers in a dense, 1–6 cm long cluster. Flowering: November–April.

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