Vascular Plants of Williamson County

Scutellaria ovata subsp. bracteata [Lamiaceae]
heart–leaved skullcap, egg–leaved skullcap

Scutellaria ovata Hill subsp. bracteata (Benth.) Epling, heart–leaved skullcap, egg–leaved skullcap. Perennial herb, rhizomatous, fibrous–rooted, 1—several–stemmed at base, not rosetted, ± erect, in range 35—70 cm tall; shoots with only cauline leaves, foliage not aromatic when crushed, soft–hairy and with stalked glandular hairs; rhizome cylindric, 3 mm diameter, whitish, densely short–hairy.

Stems

Stems 4–sided and 4–ridged, to 4 mm diameter, with 2 ridges descending from each leaf, with shallow depressions on faces and horizontal creases across nodes, pilose, short–pilose, with stalked glandular hairs.

Leaves

Leaves opposite decussate, toothed but not lobed, petiolate, without stipules; petiole channeled, 6—50 mm long, red–purple; blade triangular to ovate, < 25—75 × < 13—32 mm, truncate to subcordate at base, crenate on margins, obtuse at tip, pinnately veined with midrib and 2 lateral veins at base, having principal and many minor veins conspicuously sunken on upper surface and raised on lower surface, upper surface wide–cobblestonelike, puberulent and with long–stalked glandular hairs to 0.6 mm long, lower surface of lower cauline leaves pilose with hairs to 1.8 mm long and stalked glandular hairs, of upper cauline leaves puberulent with stalked glandular hairs and some sessile glandular hairs with milky heads.

Inflorescence

Inflorescence leafy raceme or panicle with a pair of lateral racemes at base, terminal and axillary, many–flowered, flowers opposite decussate with 10—20+ pairs, bracteate, all green tissues densely hairy, short–pilose and longer stalked glandular hairs having colorless heads; peduncle of raceme 4–sided and 4–ridged, stemlike, to 30 mm long; rachis stemlike, internodes to 12 mm long; bractlet subtending pedicel ascending later spreading, sessile, ovate, 11—21(—25) × 6—12 mm, > pedicel + calyx, tapered at base, entire, acute at tip; pedicel ascending, cylindric, at anthesis 5—6 mm long, short–pilose and stalked glandular–hairy, with 2 bracteoles fused just above base 0.5 mm, ascending, inconspicuous, slender, < 1 mm long, pale green, short–hairy.

Flower

Flower bisexual, bilateral, ca. 10 mm across; calyx short 2–lipped, purselike with closed projecting pouch on upper side, 4.5—5 × 4.5—5 mm; tube funnel–shaped strongly compressed top–to–bottom, each with convex lip 1 mm long, green with purple outer margins, 10–veined, short–pilose and densely stalked glandular–hairy, inner surface glossy and lacking hairs; pouch on upper surface of tube across midpoint projecting as long and wide as upper lip resembling a visor and deflated (collapsed against tube); corolla 2–lipped, 21—25 mm long, outer surface with stalked glandular hairs and other short hairs; tube strongly bent 3 mm upward from base, ca. 12 × 2 mm, whitish, 10–veined and ridged, somewhat compressed side–to–side, below bend lacking hairs; throat somewhat bell–shaped, ca. 9 mm long, violet (paler on under side of flower), with broad crest to hood, floor raised with median furrow (indented with ridge on under side of flower), on floor with dark violet spots on floor, inside lacking ring of stiff hairs; upper lip hood short 2–lobed lobes triangular with notch 0.7—1 mm deep; lower lip 3–lobed, the ascending lateral lobes appearing like part of upper lip, deltate to triangular, 3.5—4 mm, dark violet, central lobe overall saucerlike with ruffled margins turned downward, ca. 7 × 10 mm, margins with sublobes and scalloped margins, wide margin violet with slightly darker spots, central portion with raised floor from throat white with dark violet spots; stamens 4 in 2 pairs, longer, lower pair fused to top of corolla tube, upper pair fused to middle of throat, having anthers of long stamens stacked over anthers of short stamens; filaments ca. 11 mm long (long stamens) and 5—5.5 mm long, curved sharply just below anthers, white at base, mostly light violet but darker violet approaching anthers, below midpoint with shaggy hairs on inner sides loosely attaching filaments of pairs; anthers basifixed, dithecal, horseshoe–shaped, 1—1.2 mm long, pure white, papillate–hairy around sacs, having ca. 6 glistening opaque–white food bodies 0.1 mm across on outfacing side next to connective, longitudinally dehiscent; nectary disc below ovary, lopsided, longer on lower side (0.6 mm) and short on upper side (0.2 mm), whitish, nectar–producing; pistil 1; ovary superior, deeply 4–lobed, lobes ellipsoid, ca. 0.5 mm long, pale green, glabrous, lower pair sessile and resting on nectary disc, upper pair elevated (stalked) and appearing stacked with upper pair above lower pair, each lobe with 1 ovule; style 1, 17—19 mm long, white, positioned within crest of corolla leading to and curved with hood away from anthers, slender at base and thicker where curved downward from hood, obscurely 2–branched.

Fruits

Fruits nutlets, (1—)4, ± hemispheroid to broadly obovoid, ca. 1.5 × 2 mm, black, conspicuously warty (tuberculate), minutely textured on warts.

A. C. Gibson