Mint / Dead-Nettle Family [Lamiaceae] |
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11th May 2007, Kentmere, Cumbria. | Photo: © Jeremy Roberts |
Grows up to 30cm, the same as Bugle, but with much hairier bracts (they look like leaves) which are rather pale green but strongly tinged purple. |
11th May 2007, Kentmere, Cumbria. | Photo: © Jeremy Roberts |
The flowers are bisexual and pale blue (sometimes pink or white outside the UK). Unlike Bugle, all the bracts are longer than the flowers (upper bracts shorter on Bugle). |
11th May 2007, Kentmere, Cumbria. | Photo: © Jeremy Roberts |
Flowers have an upper cowl like hood from which the anthers dangle just underneath. Lower lip is in three distinct lobes, the central longer and with a slight nick in the centre. |
Not to be semantically confused with : Pyramidal Orchid (Anacamptis pyramidalis) which also has flowers with three downwardly-directed lobes, but they are pink.
Not to be semantically confused with: Bugloss (Anchusa arvensis) or other Buglosses, which belong to a differing family (Borage) (Boraginaceae).
Hybridizes with: Bugle (Ajuga reptans) to produce Some similarities to : Bugle (Ajuga reptans), especially to young Bugle, which has the same characteristic compact 'pyramidal' shape and can easily be mistaken for Pyramidal Bugle. But unlike Bugle, Pyramidal Bugle does not have runners (stolons) whilst Pyramidal Bugle has just a rhizome. Uniquely identifiable characteristics Distinguishing Feature : the flowers are a paler blue than are those of Bugle (Ajuga reptans), also they do not protrude beyond the extremities of the leaves. The leaves are much closer together in Pyramidal Bugle, and the plant has a slight taper towards the top, hence 'pyramidal'. It is a lot hairier than Bugle. There is possibly only one location of Pyramidal Bugle in England. It is much more frequent in Scotland.
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Ajuga | pyramidalis | ⇐ Global Aspect ⇒ | Lamiaceae |
Ajuga (Bugles) |
Mint / Dead-Nettle Family [Lamiaceae] |