LABIATAE MINT FAMILY 
GROUND IVY 
Nepeta hederacea (L.) Trevisan 
This plant is easily cultivated and sometimes used for 
ground cover in cemeteries, but it readily crowds out lawn grass 
and so may become a weed. Formerly it was much used in 
medicine but unlike Catnip . 
has a rather peculiar and 
slightly disagreeable odor 
and bitter taste. Most 
animals avoid eating it. 
The Ground Ivy, also 
called Gill over the Ground, 
often forms dense mats in 
damp or partly shaded places. 
Introduced into this country 
from Europe, it has spread 
from Newfoundland to Ore- 
gon and south from Georgia 
to Colorado, and is not likely 
to be found near towns. 
The 4-angled stems, often 
18 inches long, are creeping 
and trailing, and frequently 
root at the joints. The 
branches are ascending. The 
leaves are nearly evergreen, 
petioled, round-kidney 
shaped, palmately veined and 
bordered with fairly large rounded teeth. Lower petioles are 
commonly longer than the leaves. 
The light blue flowers are few in axillary clusters from May 
to July. The tubular calyx is 15-nerved and instead of being 2- 
lipped is somewhat unequally 5-toothed. The corclla is about 3 
times as long as the calyx and distinctly 2-lipped. Its upper lip 
is erect and notched, and the lower is spreading and 3-lobed. The 
lower middle lobe is broad and notched and the 2 lateral lobes are 
small. The upper pair of stamens, all of which bear diverging 
anther sacs, is much longer than the lower. The ovary is deeply 
4-parted and produces in fruit 4 smooth, ovoid seedlike nutlets. 
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