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Species Image Gallery (opens in a new window) |
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| THE MINT FAMILY | |||||||||
| Some species in this family are easy
to recognize because of their distinctive minty smell. Many spices come
from the mint family including rosemary, basil, and oregano. Lavender is
used in many soaps and toiletries for its scent. The mints commonly have a square stem and leaves in opposite pairs. In Saskatchewan, most of the mints are herbs. The flowers are arranged in false whorls of pairs of flowers called verticillasters. The verticillasters are arranged in various ways, most commonly in spikes or heads. The flowers may also be solitary in the leaf axils. The flowers have partially fused sepals that may be regular or two-lipped. The petals are pink, purple, or white and are also usually two-lipped. The flowers have two or four stamens attached to the petals. The ovary is four-lobed and the style joins at the base of the ovary instead of at the top. |
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| HAIRY GERMANDER | |||||||||
| LATIN NAME: Teucrium canadense var. occidentale | |||||||||
| WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE? | |||||||||
| Hairy germander grows as tall as 100 cm from rhizomes. The stems are square and hairy. The leaves are opposite and short-stalked. The leaves are usually at least somewhat hairy above and gray hairy below with a saw-toothed margin. The flowers are arranged in a spike-like cluster. The sepals are nearly two-lipped and have five teeth and 10 nerves. The sepals are hairy, hairless, or weakly hairy within the throat of the tube. The petals are light rose, lavender, or purple and appear to be one-lipped. Each flower has four stamens. | |||||||||
| WHERE DOES IT GROW? | |||||||||
| Hairy germander grows in lake and stream shore flats and prairie depressions. | |||||||||
| WHERE IS IT FOUND IN SASKATCHEWAN? | |||||||||
| This species is found in southern Saskatchewan in the Cypress Upland, Mixed Grassland, Moist Mixed Grassland, and Aspen Parkland ecoregions. | |||||||||
| WHY IS IT RARE? | |||||||||
| Hairy germander is threatened in Saskatchewan because it is rare or uncommon. Population sizes vary. No immediate threats are known but are possible in the future. | |||||||||
| HOW TO IDENTIFY HAIRY GERMANDER | |||||||||
| * Are the stems square? * Are the flowers light rose to purple? * Are the flowers in a spike-like arrangement? * Did you find it in southern Saskatchewan? | |||||||||
| If you answered yes to all of these questions, you may have found hairy germander! | |||||||||
