Moldavian Dragonhead

Source of an essential oil, sometimes cultivated.

Herbs annual. Stems numerous, (6-)22-40 cm, erect or ascending, minutely retrorse hairy, purplish. Basal cauline leaves withering early; petiole as long as blade, shorter upward; leaf blade ovate-triangular, base cordate, margin remotely crenate, apex rounded; upper blades lanceolate to linear-lanceolate, 1.4-4 × 0.4-1.2 cm, yellow glandular, veins sparsely minute hairy, base rounded to broadly cuneate, margin triangular-dentate or sparsely serrate, with basal teeth sometimes lobelike, apex long spiny, obtuse. Verticillasters 4-flowered, loose, in 5-12 upper nodes of stems and branches; bracts oblong, shorter to slightly longer than calyx, margin 2- or 3-spinescent-denticulate, with spines 2.5-3.5 mm, sparsely appressed hairy. Pedicel 3-5 mm, horizontal after anthesis. Calyx 8-10 mm, golden glandular, pubescent especially basally, purple veined, 2-lipped to 1/2 its length; upper lip teeth divisions 1/4-1/3 of lip, teeth subequal, triangular-ovate, apex acute. Corolla bluish purple, 1.5-2.5 (-3) cm, dilated beyond throat, white pubescent outside; upper lip short navicular, ca. 1/4 as long as tube; middle lobe of lower lip dark purple spotted. Nutlets oblong, ca. 2.5 mm, apex truncate, smooth.

Gansu, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Henan, Jilin, Liaoning, Nei Mongol, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Shanxi [India, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan; Europe]

Dry hills, stony riverbanks, valleys; 200-2700 m.

In the second half of the 16th century, D. moldavica was introduced to Europe and cultivated as ornamental, spice, medicinal and bee plant [1, 2]

In Mexico D. moldavica is systematically cultivated. [3]

Dracocephalum moldavica, the Moldavian dragonhead, is an annual herbaceous plant. The first formal botanical description of D. moldavica was by Linnaeus in Species Plantarum 2:595. 1753.