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 1 5-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 truit. 



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