Clinopodium talladeganum B.R. Keener & Floden

Talladega Wild Basil

Shrub

Perennial

Vascular

Talladega Wild Basil is a native endemic perennial shrub in the Mint family (Lamiaceae). It is found in the Talladega Mountains of Alabama. Talladega Wild Basil grows in xeric pine woodlands, on rock outcrops, and in rocky woodlands. Talladega Wild Basil is a woody, evergreen, mounding sub-shrub that grows to a height of twelve to eighteen inches. The main stem branches near ground level into multiple upright or sprawling stems. The stems are 4-angled, persistently pubescent, and lower portions of the stems have gray-brown bark that sheds in longish plates. Talladega Wild Basil has opposite roundish leaves. The leaves are petiolate, ovate to elliptic in outline, and either entire or with crenate margins. The leaves have revolute margins and are persistently pubescent. Short branches or fascicles of small leaves occur in the axils of the main stem leaves. The entire plant is aromatic. In late summer through early autumn, pale lavender or pinkish flowers are produced from the leaf axils. The flowers occur in 3-9 flowered cymes. The calyx is tubular, green or purple in color, with 5 lobes. The two lower lobes are much longer than the upper 3 lobes. The calyx is spreading pubescent, with the upper three lobes acuminate and the lower lobes with marginal long spreading hairs. The flower is two-lipped, with the upper lip two-lobed and the lower lip three-lobed. The center lobe of the lower lip is spotted with purple. The fruit is a mericarp that remains attached within the calyx. Talladega Wild Basil is similar to Georgia Wild Basil (Clinopodium georgianum R.M. Harper), and older specimens and publications may refer to it as such.—A. Diamond

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Native Endemic G2 (Global Rank)

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