Lycopus europaeus, L.

Tutin, T. G., Heywood, V. H., Burges, N. A., Moore, D. M., Valentine, D. H., Walters, S. M. & Webb, D. A., 1972, Flora Europaea. Volume 3. Diapensiacea to Myoporaceae, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press : 183

1. L. europaeus L. , Sp. Pl. 21 (1753)

(inch L. mollis A. Kerner ).

Stems 20-120 cm, sparsely to densely hairy. Leaves 3 -10(-15) x 1-5 cm, ovate-lanceolate or elliptical, pinnatifid or pinnatisect at base, shallowly lobed or coarsely toothed at apex; upper leaves and bracts sometimes undivided but coarsely toothed. Bracts 3-5 mm. Calyx 3-5-4-5mm; teeth (1-6—)2-l(—2-5) mm, about twice as long as tube, spiny. Corolla c. 4 mm, white with a few small purple spots; staminodes minute or absent. 2« = 22. Wet places. Europe, northwards to 63° 30' N. in Fennoscandia. All except BI Cr Fa Is Sb.

A variable species, in which subordinate taxa based on leaf shape and indumentum have been recognized. Plants with leaves usually lanceolate, lobed, usually 3 | times as long as wide, often glabrous or sparsely hairy ( subsp. europaeus ), occur throughout much of Europe. Plants from C. Europe often have leaves ovate, lobed, usually 2j times as long as wide, grey-tomentose, and have been treated as subsp. mollis (A. Kerner) Rothm. ex Skalickÿ, Acta Mus. Nat. Pragae 24B: 203 (1968), while those from the E. Mediterranean region and Balkan peninsula, often with leaves broadly ovate, crenate or crenate-lobed, as long as to twice as long as wide, more or less tomentose, have been recognized as subsp. menthifolius (Mabille) Skalickÿ , op. cit. 206 (1968).