Hyptis stachyodes Link, Enum. Hort. Berol. Alt. 2: 106. 1822; Aphanochilus foetens Bentham; A. incisus Bentham; A. paniculatus Bentham; Mentha blanda de Candolle; M. foetens Wallich ex Bentham; M. incisa Wallich ex Bentham; M. paniculata Roxburgh; Perilla leptostachya D. Don.

Herbs 30-100 cm tall. Stems erect, yellow-brown or purplish, sparsely white floccose-pubescent, ± glabrescent, much branched. Petiole 0.5-4 cm, nearly as long as blades, white, adaxially puberulent; leaf blade rhombic-ovate, 2.5-6 × 1.5-3.5 cm, thin papery, adaxially sparsely pubescent, abaxially with sparse yellowish glands, pubescent on veins, base cuneate to broadly cuneate, decurrent, margin incised-serrate above base, apex abruptly acuminate. Spikes terminal and axillary, terminal ones 4-8.5 cm, ± interrupted; verticillasters few flowered; bracts subulate-linear, longer than corolla. Pedicel ca. 0.5 mm. Calyx campanulate, ca. 1.5 mm, densely white villous outside; teeth lanceolate, subequal, pubescent inside; fruiting calyx slightly dilated, tubular-campanulate, ca. 2 mm. Corolla white, sometimes purple-red, ca. 2 × as long as calyx, pubescent outside, glabrous inside, tube funnelform, upper lip emarginate, middle lobe of lower lip elliptic, lateral lobes rounded. Anterior stamens undeveloped, posterior 2 included or slightly exserted. Nutlets yellowish, ellipsoid. Fl. and fr. Sep-Dec.

Hills, waste areas, open forests, limestone mountains; 800-2800 m. Anhui, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hubei, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Yunnan, Zhejiang [India, Myanmar, Nepal].