寸金草 cun jin cao

Calamintha chinensis Bentham var. megalantha Diels, Notes Roy. Bot. Gard. Edinburgh 5: 233. 1912; Calamintha clinopodium Bentham var. megalantha (Diels) Dunn; Calamintha megalantha (Diels) Handel-Mazzetti; Clinopodium megalanthum var. intermedium C. Y. Wu & Hsuan ex H. W. Li, var. lancifolium C. Y. Wu & Hsuan ex H. W. Li, var. robustum C. Y. Wu & Hsuan ex H. W. Li, var. speciosum C. Y. Wu & Hsuan ex H. W. Li; Satureja chinensis Briquet var. megalantha (Diels) Kudo.

Plants rhizomatous. Stems numerous, 10-60 cm, base trailing, tinged purple-red, densely spreading white hispid or pubescent to subglabrous, internodes much longer than leaves. Petiole 1-3(-5) mm; leaf blade triangular-ovate to lanceolate, 1.2-3.8(-5) × 0.7-1.7(-4) cm, adaxially white ciliate or minutely hispid, abaxially distinctly impressed glandular, sometimes subglabrous, base rounded to shallowly subcordate, margin crenate-serrate, apex obtuse to acute. Verticillasters many flowered, semiglobose, to 3.5 cm in diam. in flower, crowded apically; lower floral leaves slightly longer than calyx, upper ones reduced and bractlike; bracts needlelike, to 9 mm. Calyx ca. 9 mm in flower, glandular, white hispid or puberulent mainly along veins outside, throat white pilose, base slightly swollen on 1 side in fruit; upper teeth narrowly triangular, ± reflexed, apex short aristate; lower teeth triangular, as long as upper teeth, apex long aristate. Corolla rose to purple, 1.5-2 cm, puberulent, throat with 2 rows of hairs; tube exserted, ca. 1.5 mm wide at base, throat to 5 mm. Nutlets obovoid, ca. 1 × 0.9 mm. Fl. Jul-Sep, fr. Aug-Nov.

* Hillsides, grasslands, thickets, forests; 1300-3200 m. Guizhou, Hubei, Sichuan, Yunnan

Considered by some as Clinopodium umbrosum (M. Bieberstein) Koch var. souliei (H. Léveillé) McKean (cf. Notes Roy. Bot. Gard. Edinburgh 40: 161. 1982).

Used medicinally.