I.C. Hedge
Craniotome versicolor Reichenb.
Perennial herb. Stems erect, 40-100 cm, branched above, round, sturdy at base, slender above, with at least some, usually at base, very long slender straight eglandular hairs. Leaves broadly and regularly ovate, 5.5-10 x 4-7 cm, acuminate, crenate to serrulate, cordate or rounded, sparsely pilose, finely gland-dotted below; petiole on lower leaves up to 6 cm, less above. Cymes lateral and terminal, usually shortly pedunculate. Pedicels slender 05-15 mm, erect. Calyx 1-1.5 mm in flower, with a dense eglandular indpmentum or with very short glandular hairs, not bilabiate; teeth 5 equal, c. 0.5 mm, narrow triangular; tube villous at throat; fruiting calyx 2-2.5 mm, broad. Corolla opening cream and becoming pink then purple, 3-4 mm, externally pilose; upper lobe almost absent, flat-truncate; lower lip 3 lobed with the median lobe largest; tube slender, straight, 2.5-3.5 mm, scarcely wider at throat, internally with long eglandular hairs. Nutlets 0.7 x 0.5 mm, smooth, pale brown.
Fl. Per.: August-September.
Type: "Hab. in Nepaul?".
Distribution: Pakistan, Kashmir, Himalayas to Bhutan.
A distinct species on account of the large ovate, petiolate leaves, the tendency to secund-flowered cymes and the almost absent upper lobe of the corolla. The latter feature is the main diagnostic character of the genus whose generic allies are uncertain, but possibly Anisomeles is its nearest neighbour.