Aromatic, soft, erect, perennial shrublet, 70–250 cm high, semi-succulent distally; branches ascending, sparsely covered with short antrorse multicellular hairs and often with tufts of longer hairs at nodes, glabrescent with age. Leaves ovate to oblong-elliptic, lamina 6–17 cm long, 4–10 cm wide, firm-textured, often rugose, sparsely hairy to almost glabrous, with veins of abaxial surface more densely covered with appressed multicellular hairs and usually with sessile reddish-brown glands, apex acute, margin conspicuously crenate-dentate, with 16–25 pairs of teeth; petiole 1.5–5 cm long. Calyx c. 5 mm long (10–11 mm long in fruit); corolla 14–20 mm long, pale blue or mauve to bluish-purple (rarely white), tube straight, lobes usually with sessile glands. Flowers throughout the year.
GipP, HSF, OtR. Native to South Africa. Naturalised in the Dandenong Ranges between The Basin and Sassafras where occurring in gully vegetation within Eucalyptus regnans tall open-forest. Widely cultivated.
Source:
Conn, B.J. (1999). Lamiaceae. In: Walsh, N.G.; Entwisle, T.J., Flora of Victoria Vol. 4, Cornaceae to Asteraceae, pp. 418–459. Inkata Press, Melbourne.
