Online Virtual Flora of Wisconsin - Scutellaria lateriflora

Scutellaria lateriflora L.

Family: Lamiaceae

blue skullcap, mad-dog skullcap

Christopher Noll

Robert W. Freckmann

University of Wisconsin - Madison (WIS-VP)

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Etymology: Scutellaria: from Latin scutella, "a small dish, tray or platter," and referring to the sepals which appear this way during the fruiting period
Plants: erect, perennial, 12"-28" tall, aromatic forb; stems square, solitary
Leaves: opposite, stalked, thin with pinnately arranged veins, wide rounded base, toothed
Flowers: blue, 5-parted, 1/4"-1/3" long, petals nearly straight; flower drawing

inflorescence a 1"-4" long cluster (raceme) of stalked flowers mostly from the leaf axils; blooms June-Sept.
Fruits: 1-seeded nutlet
Habitat: wet to moist; woods, shores, shallows
Conservation Status: Native

Found in a wide variety of often shady wet areas such as lowland forests, rich mesic woods (usually around vernal pools), conifer forests, both hardwood and conifer swamps, alder thickets, sedge meadows, lakeshores, along streams and ponds, shrub carr, wet prairies, beach swales; also on wet cliffs and ledges along rivers, mudflats, wet areas along railroad tracks, ditches, and old fields. Rarely, plants will have flowers borne singly in the leaf axils without racemes present. These can be told apart from S. galericulata by their smaller, straight corollas and petiolate leaves. The two species are purported to hybridize and one specimen from Vilas Co. appears to be the resulting offspring, S. ×churchilliana Fernald. It has short-petiolate leaves intermediate in shape between the two parents and racemes with widely spaced pairs of flowers. The corollas of the hybrid are intermediate in size as well, being 9–12 mm long.

- "little shield" across the top of the calyx ("tractor seat")

- racemes mostly axillary

- petioles 0.5 - 3 cm long

- leaves ovate

- flowers < 9 mm long