Teucrium cubense

Plant: annual herb; taprooted; stems 15-70 cm tall, branched throughout Leaves: mostly sessile, the basal ones with winged petioles 1-2 cm long; blades obovate to elliptic, overall 2-4 cm long, 1-6 cm wide; margins deeply palmately 3-lobed or shallowly pinnately lobed or toothed INFLORESCENCE: bracts leaf-like Flowers: pedicels 1.5-4(-12) mm long; calyx actinomorphic, 5-10 mm long, the lobes longer than tube, the apices spinose; corolla 7-15 mm long, pale bluish with darker lines Fruit: NUTLETS ca. 2-3 mm long and 1 mm wide, brown or greenish-tan, the apices glabrous or pubescent REFERENCES: Christy, Charlotte M. 2003. Lamiaceae. J. Ariz. - Nev. Acad. Sci. Volume 35(2).

Felger 2000, Kearney and Peebles 1969

Duration: Annual Nativity: Native Lifeform: Forb/Herb General: Small annual, several stems 20-50 cm tall, branching, pubescent with white curly hairs. Leaves: Broadly lobed near base and to middle of stem, 3-5 lobed, nearly to midrib, upper leaves 3-parted, 1.5-3.5 cm long; irregularly and shallowly toothed toward apex. Flowers: Slender pedicels, sparsely pubescent 4-12 mm long; campanulate calyx 5-6 mm long, teeth lance-subulate, about equal; corolla 7-15 mm long, white often with purple lines or spots at base of lobes, pubescent without, tube 1-2 mm long, lower lip 5-8 mm long. Fruits: Nutlets 2.5 mm, high reticulately ridged and spreading-puberulent. Ecology: Found in sandy or silty soil along arroyos, washes or stream banks below 4,000 ft (1219 m); flowers March-May. Distribution: s TX to se CA; widely distributed in tropical and subtropical America. Notes: Distinguished by its white corolla appearing only single lipped, with the upper lip deeply cleft. Var. depressum (syn. var densum) is found in the US Southwest. Ethnobotany: No known uses. Etymology: Teucrium, perhaps from the Greek teukrion, for Teucer, an ancestor of the Trojans, while cubense means of or from Cuba. Synonyms: None Editor: SBuckley, 2010