looduskalender.ee

 

Selfheal

 

 

In tall grass the selfheal grows as high as the plants around but in a low-mown lawn it stays very small, up to five centimetres high; still, with its violet patches it offers the lawn beauty as well as colour. The spike-like inflorescence resembles a spruce cone growing in tall grass, and a dumpier pine cone growing in short grass.

 

It is spread in all kinds of cultural landscape types, in both dry and moist habitats, even on the shore pebbles. The perennial plant, with short hairs set densely to the stem, has upright bluish-violet flowers that rarely also can be white. The two-lipped (bilabiate) flower has a domed upper lip and a lower lip with toothed margin.