Kingdom: Plantae

Phylum: Magnoliophyta -- flowering plants

Class: Magnoliopsida -- dicotyledons

Order: Lamiales

Family: Lamiaceae -- mint

Variety: The Palouse phase is var. lanceolatus

Common Name: self-heal, common self-heal, heal-all

Species Code: PRVU, PRVUL2

Origin: Native to moist open or forested places over much of North America. It is more common in adjacent forested areas but is occasionally found on north facing slopes of the Palouse.

Rare: no

Form: forb, fibrous rooted perennial from a caudex or short rhizome; stems square in cross section, erect to decumbent or even prostrate, 10-50 cm long, villous-puberulent to glabrous.

Mature height: 4-12 inches

Duration: perennial

Longevity: medium lifespan

Habitat Type: north facing slopes, shrub thickets, forest

Wetland Indicator Status: FAC+

Leaves: few, mostly cauline, opposite, the lower ones petiolate, becoming subsessile upward, lanceolate to elliptic or ovate, 2-9 cm long, margins entire or obscurely toothed.

Flowers: verticillate, borne terminally in a short, dense spike 2-5 cm long; bracts reddish, ciliate margined; calyx green or purple, 7-10 mm long; corolla tubular, blue-violet or sometimes pink or white, 12-15 mm long, bilabiate, generally perfect but some plants may bear only pistillate flowers. May-Sept.

Flower color: blue/purple, sometimes pink or white

Bloom: June, July, August, September

Bloom starts on: late June

Bloom ends on: late September

Fruit: 4 nutlets, 2-2.3 mm long, ovoid or obovoid, smooth, brown.

Characteristics:
Reproduces sexually by seed.
668,000 seeds/lb (USDA NRCS PLANTS Database 2010).
Fibrous rooted.
Perennating organ is a caudex or short rhizome.
n=14, 16 (Hitchcock et al 1969, Baldwin et al 2004).
x=7, 2n=28 (University of British Columbia 2003)
Flowers are usually perfect but some plants may have pistillate flowers.
Fruit is a nutlet.
Widely used in both North America and Europe for medicinal purposes.

Comments: P. vulgaris is a cosmopolitan species. The European var. vulgaris has been introduced into the US and is common in eastern North America but relatively uncommon in our area. The native var. lanceolatus differs in that it has narrower leaves, although there is some overlap.

Sun requirement: full sun to partial shade

Soil moisture: moist

Precipitation: 16-55 inches (USDA NRCS PLANTS Database 2010).

Sowing time: spring or fall

Transplant time: spring

Stratification: none required

Seed yield: high

Seed harvest: medium difficulty

Seed first harvest: second season

Seed cleaning: easy

Planting duration: medium

Seed insect problem: none noted

Seed shatter: medium

Seed size: medium

Seed harvest date: August, with some seed maturing in September and even October

Seed comments: short stature might cause difficulty with mechanical harvest equipment

Herbaria: Specimen data and digital resources from The Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria

Keywords: native perennial upland forb

Propagation:
Germination was 68% in the dark at 20^oC. Alternating light and alternating day/night temperatures of 30/20^oC resulted in 88% germination (Maguire & Overland 1959).
Germinates at 20-30^oC in dark (Chirco & Turner 1986).
Peak germination occurs in autumn without stratification. (Baskin & Baskin 1988).

References:
Baldwin, B.G., S. Boyd, B.J. Ertter, D.J. Keil, R.W. Patterson, T.J. Rosatti, and D.H. Wilken (eds). 2004. Jepson Online Interchange for California Floristics. University and Jepson Herbaria, University of California, Berkeley, CA. Accessed 1/1/10 online at http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/interchange.html

Baskin, Carol C., and Jerry M. Baskin. 1988. Germination Ecophysiology of Herbaceous Plant Species in a Temperate Region. American Journal of Botany 75:286-305.

Chirco, Ellen, and Terry Turner. 1986. Species without AOSA Testing Procedures. The Newsletter of the Association of Official Seed Analysts 60(2):2-66.

Hitchcock, C. Leo, Arthur Cronquist, Marion Ownbey, and J.W. Thompson. 1969. Vascular Plants of the Pacific Northwest. University of Washington Press. Seattle, WA. 5 vol.

Maguire, James D., and Alvin Overland. 1959. Laboratory Germination of Seeds of Weedy and Native Plants. Washington State Agricultural Experiment Station Circular 349, Pullman, WA. 15 p.

University of British Columbia. 2003. British Columbia Flora. University of British Columbia Botanical Garden and Centre for Plant Research. Accessed 9/1/09 online at http://www.bcflora.org/

USDA NRCS. 2010. The PLANTS Database (http://plants.usda.gov, 10 February 2010). National Plant Data Center, Baton Rouge, LA 70874-4490 USA.

Links: Plant Profile from the USDA PLANTS Database
Species information from the University of Washington Herbarium