MINT FAMILY 



LABIATE MINT FAMILY 



Prunella vulgar is, L. 



Light or deep purple Heal-all, Brownwort, 



Self-heal, Thimble-flower, 



June-November Carpenter-weed, Heart-of-the-earth, 



Sicklewort, Blue-curls. 



Prunella: name said to have been derived from the German 

 word for a disease of the throat, for which this plant 

 was supposed to be a remedy. 



Vulgaris: Latin signifying common. 



THE PREFERRED HABITAT: dry roadsides, lawns. 



THE PLANT: generally erect, but sometimes procumbent, 

 two inches to two feet high; the stem usually simple, but 

 sometimes considerably branched, slender, with short soft 

 hairs or nearly hairless. 



THE LEAVES: opposite; ovate through oblong to oblong- 

 lanceolate; with short, soft hairs or none; obtuse or acutish 

 at the apex; usually narrowed at the base; petioled; 

 entire or wavy-margined. 



THE FLOWERS: in a spike, sessile or on short peduncles, 

 with many bract-like leaves supporting them. 



THE FRUIT: achenes. 



A very common weed with tubular purple flowers in a 

 head, liberally beset with rusty-coloured green flower-like 

 bracts. "The bracts and calyx turn brown and make the 

 spike look like a little pine cone with its tip broken off." 



The variation in the name, Brunella or Prunella, is said 

 to have been due to a mistake in copying by an early 

 printer. However that may be, the name is a corruption 

 from the German word for quinsy, for which this plant 

 was considered a certain cure. The plant was also used in 



