LABIATAE 



MINT FAMILY 



AMERICAN GERMANDER. WOOD SAGE 



Tcucriiim canadensc L. 



The American Germander is very common in the rich soil 

 of fields and waysides from New England to Ontario and Minne- 

 sota, south to Florida and Texas. It is an excellent honey plant 

 but in some places be- 

 comes a troublesome 

 weed. 



It is perennial by an 

 underground stem which 

 if broken by cultivation 

 grows into a number of 

 new plants, though per- 

 sistent cultivation de- 

 stroys it. The square 

 flowering stem grows i-2 

 feet tall. The leaves are 

 smooth or nearly so 

 above but are densely 

 covered with white hairs 

 beneath. 



The plant blooms 

 from June to September, 

 the flowers being pro- 

 duced in a terminal 



spike which may become 6-12 inches long by the time fruits are 

 ripe. The bell-shaped calyx is somewhat unequally 5-toothed. The 

 corolla, varying from purplish to pink or sometimes cream, is very 

 irregularly 5-lobed. Four upper lobes are small and turned 

 forward in such a way that there seems to be no upper lip; the 

 fifth and lower lobe is much larger. The 4 stamens extend from 

 the deep cleft between the 2 uppermost lobes of the corolla. 

 The ovary, 4-lobed but not deeply 4-parted, develops into 4 

 rather rough nutlets. 



Resembling the Wood Sage but on a larger scale and appearing 

 less hoary because the bristly hairs stand out from the stem, is the 

 Hairy Germander, Teitcrium occidentale Gray. It is distributed in 

 moist soil throughout Illinois and may grow 3 feet high. The axis 

 of the bristly spike is sprinkled with protuberant glands. 



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