Mazus pumilus (Burm. f.) Steenis

Japanese Mazus; Asian Mazus

Herb

Annual

Vascular

Asian Mazus is an introduced annual or weekly perennial herbaceous species in the Mazus family (Mazaceae). It has variously been placed in the Scrophulariaceae or the Phrymaceae. Asian Mazus is native to the Himalayas from Kashmir to China, Japan, Korea and eastern Russia, south through Vietnam and Thailand to Indonesia and the Philippines. It can be found throughout Alabama. It grows in lawns, in flower beds, along creeks and rivers, in greenhouses, and on wet roadsides. It is a low-growing plant reaching only 2-3 inches in height. It has a fibrous root system and the leaves form a basal rosette. The leaves are obovate to spathulate in outline, slightly pubescent, with serrate or entire margins. The leaves on the erect stems are few, reduced in size, petiolate and opposite. The leaves are often reddish-purple on the lower surface. Flowers are produced in terminal racemes. The flowers are solitary along the raceme in the axils of alternate bracts. The calyx is 5 parted, green in color, and bell shaped. The corolla is 2-lipped with the lower lip projecting and 3-lobed. The central lobe is smaller than the lateral lobes. The corolla is white or blue with orange spots in the throat. The corolla is pubescent within. The fruit is a capsule. Asian Mazus often occurs as a weed in nursery beds and greenhouses, from which it spreads to other areas as a hitch-hiker in pots.--A. Diamond

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Not Native FAC (NWPL)

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