Scutellaria integrifolia L.

Hyssop Skullcap; Helmet Flower; Helmet Skullcap

Herb

Perennial

Vascular

Hyssop Skullcap is a native herbaceous perennial in the Mint family (Lamiaceae). It can be found throughout Alabama. Hyssop Skullcap occurs in a wide range of habitats from wet meadows and bogs to pine woodlands, hardwood forests, roadsides, and pond and stream banks. Hyssop Skullcap produces one or more upright stems that are 1-2 feet in height from a hardened base. The stems are simple or with axillary branches above the middle, square, and green in color. The stems are pubescent with simple or rarely glandular hairs. The leaves are opposite, petiolate, and pubescent. The lower leaves are triangular or ovate in outline with crenate margins. The upper leaves are elliptic to lanceolate in outline with entire or remotely crenate margins. Flowers are produced in terminal racemes. The flowers are subtended by leaf-like bracts. Each flower has a short, pubescent pedicel, and a calyx that is minutely pubescent and green or reddish-purple in color. The corolla is pubescent, purplish-blue in color, and strongly two-lipped. The upper lip of the corolla is shorter than the lower lip and arches forward. The lower lip is notched and shallowly 3-lobed with two white stripes down the middle of the central lobe. The fruit is a nutlet. Hyssop Skullcap is occasionally available from native plant nurseries. It prefers a moist, acidic, sandy soil in full or partial sun.—A. Diamond

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Native FAC (NWPL)

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