MINT FAMILY 



LABIATE MINT FAMILY 



Pycnanthemum virginianum, (L.) Durand & Jackson. 



White, purple dotted Virginia Mountain Mint, 



Virginia Thyme, 



July-September Mountain Thyme, 



Prairie-hyssop, 

 Pennyroyal, 

 Basil. 



Pycnanthemum: Greek for a dense blossom, because of the 



compact arrangement of the flowers. 

 Virginianum: Latin for Virginian. 



THE PREFERRED HABITAT: dry, sandy soil of the Commons 

 and in low thickets. 



THE PLANT: erect, one foot to three feet high; the stem 

 rather stout, not strikingly square, hairless or having 

 scattered, short, soft hairs. 



THE LEAVES: opposite; lanceolate or linear-lanceolate; 

 firm; without hairs, or beneath with very short, soft ones, 

 or the upper densely covered with hoary hairs; acuminate 

 at the apex; rounded or narrowed at the base; entire; 

 often with short, leafy branches in the axils. 



THE FLOWERS: in terminal cymose arrangement, with 

 flattened, stiff, acute or acutish bracts; the teeth of the 

 calyx about one fourth as long as the tube; the corolla 

 with short, soft hairs on the outer surface. 



THE FRUIT: nutlets. 



A high, straight plant of the thickets where it grows 

 under the branches of the taller shrubs. It has a slight 

 fragrance of mint. The lance-shaped, stemless leaves are 

 in reality opposite, although they have the appearance 

 of being in tufts. The tiny, whitish flowers, purple- 

 dotted, grow in dense globular heads, the outer flowers 



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