Stachys obtusifolia
MacOwanPerennial herb to 30 cm high; branches with long slender spreading hairs and shorter glandular hairs. Leaves broadly ovate to ovate-elliptic, lamina 17–35 mm long, 8–20 mm wide, surfaces densely appressed pilose or villous with long slender multicellular hairs, apex rounded or obtuse, base attenuate to cordate; petiole to 3 cm long. Inflorescence with 4–6 flowers per bract or leaf axil. Calyx 10-veined, 6–7 mm long, densely pilose, often glandular, lobes acuminate, shorter than tube; corolla white to mauve, tube slightly longer than abaxial lobe; lower pair of stamens c. equal to upper pair. Recorded flowering in Victoria in December.
Native to South Africa.
The single collection from Coode Island in Melbourne in 1908 appears intermediate between the typical form and Stachys obtusifolia var. angustifolia Skan, which is now treated synonymous with Stachys tysonii Skan. Stachys tysonii can be distinguished from S. obtusifolia by having a shorter and more glandular pubescence, including markedly gland-dotted abaxial leaf surfaces and by leaves that are petiolate throughout (Codd 1985).