I.C. Hedge

Suffruticose herb with a woody rootstock, many-stemmed. Stems slender, not branched, pubescent with short eglandular hairs, leafy in middle part. Leaves broad ovate to subreniform, up to c. 10-15 x 10-15 mm, as long as broad, obtuse at apex, greenish above, white-tomentose below with promi-nent venation; petiole on lower leaves up to 10 mm, decreasing up stem. Inflorescence of many-flowered, few, approximating sessile verticillasters, loosely spicate. Bracts membranous, almost as long as calyces, attenuate. Pedicels subabsent. Calyx tubular 9-10 mm, membranous, villous with some short glandular hairs; tube membranous, curved; teeth unequal, lanceolate, c. 3-3.5 mm, subulate. Corolla c. 12 mm. Nutlets c. 1.5 x 1 mm, ellipsoid, brown, with a small angular areole.

Type: Pakistan [?B-6], Chitral, Shoghor, 1900 m, 16.10.1954, Schmid 2405 (G).

Distribution: Endemic, known from one gathering only.

It is doubtful if this is different from Nepeta griffithii. (l.c.) distinguished it from Nepeta cataria, from which it is clearly different, and did not mention Nepeta griffithii as an ally. Yet the same collector’s number, Schmid 2405, is also cited under Nepeta griffithii in Flora Iranica (l.c. 148), but from "Chitral" not "Shoghor". From the illustration in Flora Iranica, the obtuse leaves look different from the usually, but not always, acute apices of the leaves of Nepeta griffthii. Further gatherings from Chitral and Shoghor are needed.