_Leonurus Cardiaca_
_Flowers_--Dull purple pink, pale purple, or white, small, clustered in
axils of upper leaves. Calyx tubular, bell-shaped, with 5 rigid awl-like
teeth; corolla 2-lipped, upper lip arched, woolly without; lower lip
3-lobed, spreading, mottled; the tube with oblique ring of hairs inside.
Four twin-like stamens, anterior pair longer, reaching under upper lip;
style 2-cleft at summit. _Stem:_ 2 to 5 ft. tall, straight, branched,
leafy, purplish. _Leaves:_ Opposite, on slender petioles; lower ones
rounded, 2 to 4 in. broad, palmately cut into 2 to 5 lobes; upper leaves
narrower, 3-cleft or 3-toothed.
_Preferred Habitat_--Waste places near dwellings.
_Flowering Season_--June-September.
_Distribution_--Nova Scotia southward to North Carolina, west to
Minnesota and Nebraska. Naturalized from Europe and Asia.
How the bees love this generous, old-fashioned entertainer! One nearly
always sees them clinging to the close whorls of flowers that are strung
along the stem, and of course transferring pollen, in recompense, as
they journey on. A more credulous generation imported the plant for its
alleged healing virtues. What is the significance of its Greek name,
meaning a lion’s tail? Let no one suggest, by a far-stretched metaphor,
that our grandmothers, in Revolutionary days, enjoyed pulling it to vent
their animosity against the British.