Trichostema dichotomum L.

Forked Bluecurls; Common Bluecurls; Bastard Pennyroyal

Herb

Annual

Vascular

Forked Bluecurls is a native herbaceous annual in the Mint family (Lamiaceae). It can be found throughout the state. Forked Bluecurls occurs in in dry, often sandy woodlands, in old fields, in clear cuts, and around rock outcrops. It is an annual with a tap root. The stems are erect, green to reddish-brown in color, somewhat angled, pubescent, glandular, and freely branched. Leaves are opposite, petiolate, elliptic to lanceolate in outline, pubescent, with entire or crenate margins. Flowers are produced in panicles of cymes. Each individual flower is subtended by a pair of small bracts. The calyx is 2-lipped, with the lower lip longer than the upper. The lower lip has 3 teeth and the upper has 2 teeth. The corolla is 5-lobed with the lower lobe elongate. The corolla lobes are blue in color with the lower lobe spotted with white and purple. There are 4 long stamens that curl downwards. The fruit is a brown, wrinkled mericarp. Forked Bluecurls flowers open in the early morning and wither before noon except on cloudy days.—A. Diamond

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Native

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