Leucas aspera

Leucas aspera (Willd.)

Family     : Lamiaceae/labiatae

Common Name : തുമ്പ (Mal)

छोटा हल्कुसा (Hin)

                                 Common Leucas(Eng)

Common Leucas is an erect and diffusely branched annual herb. Flower are borne in distant spherical whorls, in uppermost leaf axils, 1-4, about 2.5 cm in diameter, about 16-20-flowered. Flowers are 8-10 mm white; upper lip short, densely bearded; lower lip clearly longer than upper and projecting forward. Sepal-cup is 7-9 mm, scarcely elongating in fruit, pale green, scarcely curved, with a prominently oblique mouth. Sepal teeth are 8-10, irregular in size, triangular, 2-3 mm long with short spinulose tips. Bracts narrow linear, about 1/2 length of calyces, long-fringed with hairs at margins. 

Corolla white, 13-15 mm long; tube 5-7 mm long, included in calyx tube, outside hairy above, inside middle annulate with oblique and discontinuous ring of fleshy hairs; lower lip ca. 8 mm long, middle lobe 6 mm wide, fan shaped, side lobes 1.5 mm broad at free end, acuminate, base narrowed, margin slightly revolute; upper lip 6 mm long, concave, bent, white spreading hairs outside, margins ciliate. Stamens included in the upper lip, upper pair shorter than the lower, filaments hairy. Style c. 8 mm long, bent towards upper side; stigma unequally bi-lobbed. Nutlets 2.5 x 1 mm, dark brownish, glabrous shining.