Selfheal

Description:

It grows 5 to 30 cm high, with creeping, self-rooting, tough, square, reddish stems branching at leaf axis. The leaves are lance shaped, serrated, and reddish at tip, about an 2.5 cm long and 1.5 cm broad, and grow on short stalks in opposite pairs down the square stem. The flowers grow from a clublike, somewhat square, whirled cluster; immediately below this club are a pair of stalkless leaves standing out on either side like a collar. Flowers are two lipped and tubular. The top lip is a purple hood, and the bottom lip is often white; it has three lobes with the middle lobe being larger and fringed upwardly. Flowers bloom at different times depending on climate and other conditions, but mostly from June to August. For medicinal purposes, the whole plant is gathered and dried when the flowers are in bloom. The leaves and small flowers of heal-all are edible.