I.C. Hedge & A. Paton
Scutellaria celtidifolia A. Hamilton
Perennial, scrambling, suffruticose herb, with a woody creeping rhizome. Stems up to 1.5 m, ascending, acutely quadrangular, leafy usually with flowering short lateral branches; indumentum of retrorse, eglandular, and patent glandular hairs, sparsely hairy at base. Lower leaves 12-35 x 5-14 mm, decreasing in size up the stem, serrate, round to cuneate (rarely cordate), acute; upper leaves narrow to broad ovate 3-9 x 1-4 mm, entire or serrate, cuneate, acute; indumentum of lower leaves with sparse, white, eglandular, strigillose broad-based hairs; upper leaves with glandular hairs or not. Petioles up to 5 (-8) mm long. Inflorescence lax, axillary. Flowers second, in axils of upper leaves or leaf-like bracts. Pedicels 2.5-4 mm, erect, with small basal scales or not, terete. Calxy 2-2.5 mm in flower, with a small scutellum, enlarging in fruit to 4.5-5 mm; indumentum similar to that of inflorescence axis. Corolla greenish yellow, yellow marked with purple, or white with purple inside, 20-22 mm, glandular- and eglandular-pilose, erect or spreading-erect; tube 17-19 mm. Nutlets prominently and regularly tuberculate with a median band of fused tubercules, 1.2 x 0.8 mm, palish brown.
Fl. Per.: April-August.
Type: [C] Nepal: Tombu Cana, [Buchanan-] Hamilton (K).
Distribution: Kashmir, N.W. India, Nepal.
Characteristic features are the scrambling habit, the acutely quadrangular stems, the large corollas and the prominently tuberculate nutlets with a median band. It has a superficial resemblance to Scutellaria repens, but there are clear differences in corolla size (larger in Scutellaria scandens) and in nutlet indumentum (smooth and with hairs in Scutellaria repens).