#blephilia

My first time noticing Blephilia ciliata or ciliated horse mint winter basal foliage. I think I never realized how hispid the hairs were on the base nor have I really seen a complete mat before uninterrupted. I think Im just used to seeing the cauline section of the plant which is pubescent and has little hair on the leaves; though, the verticillaster is for sure ciliate. I even doubted this was Blephilia for a second due to what looked like no nodal cauline sections for leaves, aka acauline.

The beautiful-densely pubescent inflorescence of the Downy Wood Mint,

Blephilia ciliata;

not to be confused with, Blephilia hirsuta, the hairy wood mint.

B. ciliata differs from B. hirsuta in many ways, but the easiest way to tell the difference  is when they are in flower. B. ciliata has intense lavender flowers with more pubescence on the flowers and less on the stem forming only apical inflorescences. B. Hirsuta tends to have much more hairy stems overall and a pleasant white color for it’s flower that tends to be sparsely pubescent. The inflorescences form along the upper most nodes in B. hirsuta.

Blephilia hirsuta

Hairy Wood Mint

The continuing discoveries of a 21st century artist and naturalist … In the first piece I wrote in this seriesI talked about my grandmother and her affinity with plants – how they were, in many ways, her companions.  Today we are going to look at  the ‘ancestors’ of some domesticated plants we see in gardens  and adorning lawns today.  But before I start  I want to mention a segment of a book I…