Nepeta multifida L.

Source of an essential oil.

Herbs perennial. Rhizomes woody. Stems numerous, erect, to 40 cm tall, semiwoody, white villous. Petiole ca. 1.5 cm; leaf blade ovate, pinnatipartite or pinnatifid, sometimes pinnatilobate to subentire, 2.1-3.4 × 1.5-2.1 cm, adaxially puberulent, abaxially white-yellow or white hirtellous, glandular, base truncate to cordate, lobes linear-lanceolate to ovate, margin entire or remotely serrate, ciliate, apex acute. Verticillasters in continuous or rarely interrupted terminal spikes 6-12 cm; bracts leaflike, gradually reduced toward apex, ovate, ca. 1 cm basally, divided or entire, apex cuspidate, purplish, longer than flowers; bracteoles ovate-lanceolate to lanceolate, purplish, as long as to slightly longer than flowers. Calyx purple, base yellowish, ca. 5 × 2 mm, 15-veined, sparsely pubescent; teeth triangular, ca. 1 mm, apex acute. Corolla blue-purple, yellowish when dry, ca. 8 mm, intricately villous, tube gradually dilated toward throat. Anterior stamens shorter than upper lip of corolla, posterior stamens slightly longer. Nutlets brown, triquetrous, oblong, ca. 1.6 × 0.6 mm, base attenuate, smooth. Fl. Jul-Sep, fr. Aug-Oct.

Gansu, Hebei, Nei Mongol, Shaanxi, Shanxi [Mongolia, Russia]

Margins of pine forests, grassy slopes, wet grasslands; 1300-2000 m.

Nepeta lavendulacea Linnaeus f.