General: Perennial herb from rhizome; stems erect, 70-150 cm tall, mostly unbranched, 4-angled, bristly-hairy on the angles.
Leaves: Opposite, wedge- to egg-shaped, 6-15 cm long, 2.5-8 cm wide, coarsely blunt-toothed, long-hairy; only somewhat reduced and shorter-stalked upward; stalks 1.5-4.5 cm long.
Flowers: Inflorescence a series of clusters of several to many flowers, the lower subtended by slightly reduced leaves, the upper by bracts; corollas tubular, deep red-purple, the tube 15-25 mm long, 2-lipped, the upper lip erect, simple and somewhat hood-like, the lower lip 3-lobed, 8-14 mm long; calyces tubular, 8-11 (13) mm long, glandular-hairy, ring of hairs within near base of tube, teeth broadly lance-triangular, shorter than the tube, spine-tipped.
2. Plants densely covered with soft, white hairs...........................S. byzantina
2. Plants not white-hairy.
3. Leaves unstalked, at least those of upper half of stem.............. S. palustris
3. Leaves all stalked.
4. Plants 70-150 cm tall; corollas deep red-purple; tubes 15-23 mm long.......................S. chamissonis
4. Plants 30-80 cm tall; corollas pale pink to pink-purple, tubes 8-13 mm long....................S. mexicana
Source: Illustrated Flora of British Columbia
Ecology
Ecological Framework for Stachys chamissonis var. cooleyae
The table below shows the species-specific information calculated from original data (BEC database) provided by the BC Ministry of Forests and Range. (Updated August, 2008)
Wet to mesic swamps, waste places, roadsides, open woodlands and forest margins in the lowland and lower montane zone; common in SW BC west of the Coast-Cascade Mountains, rare on the Queen Charlotte Islands; S to OR.
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