Plant Species: Scutellaria angustifolia, narrow-leaf skullcap
Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Magnoliophyta -- flowering plants
Class: Magnoliopsida -- dicotyledons
Order: Lamiales
Family: Lamiaceae -- mint
Genus: Scutellaria
Species: angustifolia
Subspecies: The Palouse phase is ssp. angustifolia
Common Name: narrow-leaf skullcap
Species Code: SCAN3
Origin: Native to dry, open, often rocky places of British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Utah, and Nevada.
Rare: no
Form: forb, perennial from rhizomes; stems slender, erect, 10-30 cm tall, often clustered or branched near the base, generally strigulose but sometimes with hairs longer and gland-tipped or even sometimes glabrous.
Mature height: 4-12 inches
Duration: perennial
Longevity:
Habitat Type: lithosolic prairie
Wetland Indicator Status: not listed
Leaves: opposite, short petiolate; blade lance-elliptic to oblong to nearly ovate, becoming narrower and subsessile upward, 1.5-3.5 cm long and 3-10 mm wide, 3-5 veined, margins entire.
Flowers: solitary in the axils of upper leaves; calyx 3.5-5.5 mm long at flowering, accrescent, 2-lipped with a prominent crest on the upper lip; corolla blue-violet, tubular, 2 lipped, 22-32 mm long, throat open, palate pilose.
Flower color: blue/purple
Bloom: June
Bloom starts on:
Bloom ends on:
Fruit: nutlet, usually in clusters of 4, ovoid.
Vegetation type:
Characteristics:
Reproduces both sexually by seed and vegetatively by rhizomes.
Flowers are perfect.
Fruit is a nutlet.
Outcrossed (Olmstead 1990).
Comments:
Sun requirement: full sun
Soil moisture: xeric
Precipitation:
Fire: Rocky habitat probably protects plants from fire.
Hazards:
Sowing time: no information available, probably should be fall sown
Transplant time: no information available
Stratification: no information available, probably requires stratification
Seed yield: low
Seed harvest: difficult
Seed first harvest: no information available
Seed cleaning: no information available
Planting duration:
Seed insect problem:
Seed shatter: no information available
Seed size: small
Seed harvest date: no information available
Seed comments: short stature and low seed production make collection difficult
Keywords: native perennial upland forb
Alternate Genus:
Alternate Species:
Alternate Variety:
Propagation:
No information is available. Seed should probably be stratified or fall sown.
Probably can be propagated from rhizomes.
Notes: Scutellaria angustifolia is an interesting little plant with purple flowers. It likes dry, often rocky places. Might be a good rock garden plant. Common name is narrow-leaf skullcap (Skinner et al 2005).
References:
Olmstead, Richard G. 1989. Phylogeny, Phenotypic Evolution, and Biogeography of the
Scutellaria angustifolia Complex (Lamiaceae): Inference from Morphological and Molecular Data. Systematic Botany 14:320-338.
Olmstead, Richard G. 1990. Biological and Historical Factors Influencing Genetic Diversity in the Scutellaria angustifolia complex (Labiatae). Evolution 44:54-70.
Skinner, David M., Paul Warnick, Bill French, and Mary Fauci. 2005. More Palouse Forbs for Landscaping. USDA NRCS Pullman Plant Materials Center and Palouse Prairie Foundation. Online at http://www.wsu.edu/pmc_nrcs/Docs/More_Forbs_for_Landscaping.pdf