Similar in facies, habit, indumentum, floral and nutlet characters to Nepeta praetervisa, but leaves oblong to oblong-ovate, longer than broad, verticillasters fewer-flowered and up to 10 mm wide in fruit.

Type: Afghanistan, Griffith EIC 4010 (K!).

Distribution: Afghanistan, Pakistan.

Nepeta juncea, Nepeta praetervisa and the widespread Iranian endemic Nepeta glomerulosa Boiss. form a very difficult complex. In Flora Iranica, Rechinger (l.c.165-171) recognized 3 subspecies in Nepeta glomerulosa and 5 (4 in Afghanistan) in Nepeta juncea; the specimens cited above are called subsp. juncea. The differences both between the individual subspecies and even the 3 species often break down and are far from clearcut or convincing. In following Rechinger in part (i.e. not recognizing subspecies in Nepeta juncea), I have done so with uncertainty. Mukerjee (l.c.), with much less material to study, called the Baluchistan-Punjab plant Nepeta glomerulosa Boiss. (the earliest name in the complex) giving Nepeta juncea as a synonym.

Field studies by local botanists on such subjects as ecological variation and gynodioecism are needed and might help in understanding the taxonomy. Male-sterile flowers seem, from herbarium specimens, to be quite frequent in Nepeta juncea and Nepeta paetervisa and plants with such flowers tend to have a different facies (smaller flowers, fewer-flowered verticillasters) from plants with hermaphrodite flowers.