I.C. Hedge

Stems glabrescent below, velutinous-tomentose above with stellatedendroid hairs. Basal leaves 10-20 x 5-8 cm with a petiole as long as lamina, lyrate to pinnatisect, segments dentate to crenate, ± glabrous above, white vinous below. Verticillasters 6-10-flowered, densely compact, all distant. Bracts small, 3-6 mm, adpressed to calyx, subulate. Calyx c. 14 mm, densely stellate-tomentose; teeth triangular-ovate with a c. 1.5 mm spine. Corolla c. 20 mm; upper lip c. 9 mm; lower lip longer than upper; tube pilose-annulate within.

Syntypes: [Pakistan] Baluchistan, sine loc.: 3000-45000 ft, Stocks 314 (G - microfiche!); Stocks 802 (G - microfiche !).

Distribution: Endemic.

This is a species of uncertain status and I have seen no recent material certainly assignable to it. Boissier reduced it to a synonym of Eremostachys loasifolia in Fl. Or. (4: 795. 1879), but the description appears to refer to Eremostachys stocksii, not Eremostachys loosifolia. Mukerjee (Rec. Bot. Surv. Ind. 14, 1: 199. 1940) apparently followed, or agreed with, Boissier. Popov in his monograph (l.c., 97), without having seen any specimens, recognized it as an independent species. Hedge (Notes Roy. Bot. Gard. Edinb. 27: 161. 1967) reduced it to synonymy under Eremostachys labiosa on account of its long lower corolla lip. Rechinger (l.c.) regarded it as clearly different from both Eremostachys loasifolia and Eremostachys labiosa.

Only new and adequate specimens from Baluchistan are likely to provide a satisfactory answer to the problem.