Family: Lamiaceae
heal-all, lawn prunella, self-heal
Merel R. Black
Matthew L. Wagner
University of Wisconsin - Madison (WIS-VP)
Etymology: Prunella: from a German brunella for "quinsy," a malady that this plant was used to treat
Plants: perennial forb; stems square
Leaves: opposite
Flowers: 5-parted
Fruits: 1-seeded nutlet
Plants: perennial forb; stems square
Leaves: opposite
Flowers: 5-parted
Fruits: 1-seeded nutlet
In clearings or along trails and logging roads through forests of oak-Jack pine, aspen, oak-hickory, sugar maple-beech, mixed hardwoods, and sometimes conifers; meadows, fields, dry to mesic prairies, ditches, pond margins, lakeshores, and riverbanks, sedge meadows, roadsides and railroad corridors, hardwood and coniferous swamps, clear-cuts, clay bluffs, Lake Michigan dunes and beaches, sandstone outcrops, sandspits, and waste areas.
Native in Eurasia and North America, both native and introduced plants are present in the state. Native plants, ssp. lanceolata (W. P. C. Barton) Hultén, are usually more upright and have mid-cauline leaves lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate, being 20-50% as wide as long, with mostly tapered bases. The typical (introduced) subspecies has mid-cauline leaves ovate to oblong-ovate, 40-65% as wide as long, and with mostly rounded bases. The introduced plants are often in weedier, human-influenced habitats such as lawns, gravel pits, abandoned quarries, and fields but they have also been collected in more natural settings. The majority of our collections represent the native subspecies and it is found all across the state; the introduced taxon is scattered but perhaps more common and simply ignored. However, there a number of specimens that do not neatly fit into either subspecies and could be hybrids between the two or the taxa exhibit a phenotypic plasticity that is not fully understood.
Native in Eurasia and North America, both native and introduced plants are present in the state. Native plants, ssp. lanceolata (W. P. C. Barton) Hultén, are usually more upright and have mid-cauline leaves lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate, being 20-50% as wide as long, with mostly tapered bases. The typical (introduced) subspecies has mid-cauline leaves ovate to oblong-ovate, 40-65% as wide as long, and with mostly rounded bases. The introduced plants are often in weedier, human-influenced habitats such as lawns, gravel pits, abandoned quarries, and fields but they have also been collected in more natural settings. The majority of our collections represent the native subspecies and it is found all across the state; the introduced taxon is scattered but perhaps more common and simply ignored. However, there a number of specimens that do not neatly fit into either subspecies and could be hybrids between the two or the taxa exhibit a phenotypic plasticity that is not fully understood.
USDA Plants Database: Federal Distribution and detailed information including photos
Matthew L. Wagner
Merel R. Black
Robert W. Freckmann
Robert Bierman
Christopher Noll
Merel R. Black
© Thayne Tuason
Kurt Stüber
Caroline A. Creevey
Marion Sheehan
Marion Sheehan
Aaron_Carlson
