Meehania cordata, also known as Meehan's mint or creeping mint, is a perennial plant of the genus Meehania, within the family Lamiaceae found in moist shady banks west of Pennsylvania to Illinois, Tennessee, and North Carolina around the month of June.
| Meehania cordata | |
|---|---|
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Scientific classification 
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| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Clade: | Asterids |
| Order: | Lamiales |
| Family: | Lamiaceae |
| Genus: | Meehania |
| Species: | M. cordata
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| Binomial name | |
| Meehania cordata (Nutt.) Britton
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| Synonyms[1] | |
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Description
editMeehania, which was named by Nathaniel Lord Britton for the late Thomas Meehan, Philadelphian botanist, is a dicot perennial plant with calyx rather obliquely 5-toothed, 15 nerved. Corolla ample, expanded at the throat; the upper lip flattish or concave, 2-lobed, the lower 3-cleft, the middle lobe largest. Stamens 4, ascending, the lower pair shorter; anther-cells parallel. Low stoloniferous herb, with a pale purplish flowers.[2]
Meehania cordata, which is one of seven species of the genus Meehania and named by the English botanist Thomas Nuttall, are low, with slender runners, hairy; leaves broadly heart-shaped, crenate, petioled, the floral shorter than the calyx; whorls few-flowered, at the summit of short ascending stems; corolla hairy inside, 2–3.5 cm (13⁄16–1+3⁄8 in) long; stamens shorter than the upper lip. .[2]
Distribution
editIt is mostly found in eastern North America, in the following states:
- Illinois
- Kentucky
- North Carolina
- Ohio
- Pennsylvania
- Tennessee
- Virginia
- West Virginia
Threatened and endangered information
editThis plant is listed by the U.S. federal government or a state.
References
edit- ^ Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families
- ^ a b Gray, Asa (1908). Gray's New Manual of Botany. New York: American Book Company.
- ^ a b "USDA Plants". United States Department of Agriculture. Retrieved 15 May 2011.