MINT FAMILY 
\ 
LABIATAE 
CATNIP. CAT MINT 
Nepeta Cataria L. 
Catnip tea was formerly the common remedy for a troubled 
and aching stomach due to indigestion, and easily taken be- 
cause it was pleasant to the taste. It is universally known that 
cats are exceedingly fond of eating the 
aromatic leaves of this plant or of rol- 
ling among the fragrant stems. 
Catnip or Cat Mint is an immigrant 
from Europe now common in waste 
places, especially near dwellings, from 
New Brunswick to Oregon, south to 
South Carolina, Kansas and Utah. It is 
a common weed throughout Illinois. 
The whole plant is densely covered 
with short whitish hairs which give it a 
pale green color. The square stem is 
rather stout, much branched and usu- 
ally 2-3 feet high. The ovate to oblong 
leaves are 1-3 inches long, petioled, 
coarsely round toothed, acute tipped 
and mostly heart shaped at the base, and 
darker green above than beneath. 
The flowers bloom from July to 
October in terminal clusters 1-5 inches 
long. The bracts of the spike are small 
and leaflike; the bractlets are awl 
shaped. The tubular calyx is 15-nerved, 
5-toothed and only slightly irregular. 
Although the calyx cannot be said to be 
2-lipped, the upper of the awl-shaped 
teeth are longer than the lower and 
about half the length of the densely minutely soft-hairy tube. 
The strongly 2-lipped corolla is nearly white and dotted with 
purple. The upper lip is slightly 2-lobed and the lower 3-lobed, 
the lower middle lobe being much broader than the other 2 and 
having shallow teeth around the margin. The 4 stamens are in 
pairs, of which the lower is a little shorter than the upper. The 
ovary is deeply 4-parted and produces 4 smooth nutlets in fruit. 
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