ROUGH PENNYROYAL 



Hedeoma hispida Pursh 



June Small, aromatic, low. the pennyroyal may be walked upon 

 Woods without anyone noticing that it is there, until the sweet aroma 

 of the crushed leaves and stems tills the summer air. Penny- 

 royal is one of the most fragi-ant of the mints, with none of the acrid 

 quality of some of the pungent or bitter members of the family. Penny- 

 royal tea. brewed from the dried and crumbled leaves, contains the essence 

 of that flavor of the dry summer hills. 



Pennyroyal is part of the mid-summer flora of the dry oak woods 

 floor, there on the hilly places where the soil is caked and cracked during 

 the periods of no rain and much heat. These are the woods where the 

 wood pewee wails thinly all day long, from three o'clock in the morning 

 until nine o'clock at night ; woods known by the fox squirrel and the big 

 velvety cecropia moths. Woods like these may be full of early bloom, but 

 in mid-summer there is almost nothing in bloom, and the sparse vegeta- 

 tion is dry and almost without life. Somehow the i)ennyroyal manages to 

 bloom and live until, in late summer and early autumn, the little low 

 plants finally grow dry and sore. It is now that their ai'omatic perfume is 

 strongest in the warm days of September. Even under snow, and at the 

 ragged end of winter, the remaining little thin stems and remnants of 

 leaves continue to hold that unmistakable odor. 



Two species of pennyroyal are found in Illinois. The American 

 pennyroyal {Hedeoma puJeffioides) is most abundant throughout woods, 

 is most aromatic and is taller than other pennyroyals. The leaves are 

 elliptical and petioled. liough |)ennyroyal (Hedeonid hisipidn) has sessile, 

 linear leaves, is very hispid, and is limited to sandy soils. 



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