Slender Wild Basil

Used medicinally.

Close to Clinopodium multicaule (Maximowicz) Kuntze from Japan, but the latter has calyx glabrous inside, as long as bracts, 1/2 as long as corolla, and 3 × as long as pedicel.

Herbs slender, stoloniferous. Stems numerous, ascend-ing, 8-30 cm, retrorse pubescent. Petiole 0.3-1.8 cm; blade of basal leaves circular-ovate, ca. 10 × 8-9 mm, base rounded, margin remotely crenate, apex obtuse; blade of lower and mid stem leaves ovate, 1.2-3.4 × 1-2.4 cm, papery, subglabrous, abaxially sparsely minutely hispid on veins, base rounded to cuneate, margin remotely dentate or crenate-serrate, apex obtuse; blade of upper stem leaves ovate-lanceolate, margin serrate, apex acute. Verticillasters few flowered, lax or crowded in short terminal raceme; floral leaves ovate-lanceolate, margin serrate, apex acute; bracts needlelike, much shorter than pedicels. Pedicel 1-3 mm. Calyx tubular, base rounded, ca. 3 mm in flower, ca. 5 mm and declinate in fruit, puberulent or subglabrous, minutely hispid on veins, throat sparsely fine pilose; teeth ciliate, lower 2 subulate, upper 3 triangular, reflexed in fruit. Corolla white to purple-red, ca. 4.5 mm, puberulent. Nutlets ovoid, smooth. Fl. Jun-Aug, fr. Aug-Oct.

Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Yunnan, Zhejiang [India, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam]

Streamsides, open grasslands, forest margins, thickets; 0-2400 m.

Calamintha gracilis Bentham, Prodr. 12: 232. 1848; Calamintha radicans Vaniot; Satureja gracilis (Bentham) Briquet; Satureja ussuriensis Kudo.