LABIATAE 



MINT FAMILY 



GIANT HYSSOP 



Agasiache ncpcto'ides (L. ) Ktze. 



The Giant Hyssop is among our tallest common Mints, 

 often 5 feet high and generally 2 feet or more. It is found in 

 woods from Quebec and Vermont to Minnesota and South 

 Dakota, south to Georgia and Kansas. 

 In Illinois it is common throughout. 



The stem is sharply 4-angled and 

 smooth or nearly so. It grows from a 

 perennial underground portion and is 

 usually branched, at least near the top. 

 The leaves are similar to those shown 

 except that the lower are larger and 

 definitely petioled. All are ovate, smooth, 

 coarsely toothed and somewhat pointed. 



The flowers are crowded in interrupted 

 terminal spikes from July to September, 

 and bloom progressively upward from the 

 base of the spike. The calyx is slightly 

 2-lipped, the 3 teeth of the upper lip 

 being slightly larger than the 2 of the 

 lower lip. The corolla is greenish yellow 

 and strongly 2-lipped. Its upper lip is 

 erect and 2-lobed and the lower is spread- • 

 ing and 3-lobed, its middle lobe being 

 much the larger and slightly uneven with 

 small rounded teeth. The 4 stamens are 

 attached in the throat of the corolla, the 

 upper pair a little the longer. The ovary 

 is deeply 4-parted and the slender style 

 is 2-cleft at the end. The fruit within 

 the persistent calyx consists of 4 smooth 

 i-seeded nutlets. 



The Purple Giant Hyssop, Agastache scrophulariaefolia (Willd.) 

 Ktze., is a yet larger plant, up to 8 feet high, and often grows along 

 with the Giant Hyssop, from which it differs in little more than 

 the color ot its flowers, which are purple. The obtusely 4-angled stem 

 and lower surfaces of the ovate or somewhat heart-shaped leaves are 

 slightly soft hairy. The calyx teeth are lanceolate and acute, rather 

 than ovate and obtuse as in the yellow-flowered species. 



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