Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses

COMMON MOTHERWORT

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Leonurus cardiaca L.

Riley County, Kansas

Perennial

Height: 16-80 inches

Family: Lamiaceae - Mint Family

Flowering Period: May, June, July, August, September

Also Called:

Motherwort (common).

Stems:

Ascending to erect, simple or branched above, square in cross section, glabrous or sparsely pubescent.

Leaves:

Cauline, opposite, simple; petiole .4 to 2 inches; blade ovate to suborbiculate, .8 to 4.7 inches long, .8 to 4.3 inches wide, base truncate to cuneate, margins of lower leaves palmately 3- or 5-lobed and coarsely serrate, margins of upper leaves 3-lobed or merely coarsely serrate, tip acute, lower surface sparsely pubescent, upper surface glabrous or pubescent.

Inflorescences:

Cymes, axillary; bracts leaf-like.

Flowers:

Calyx strongly 5-ribbed, .14 to .3 inch, prominently veined internally, veins conspicuously raised, lobes 5, triangular, apex subulate, not spinulose and hooked; corolla white to pink or lavender, .3 to .47 inch, adaxial lip densely villous; stamens 4, included, ascending under adaxial lip, filaments straight or curved; style 1.

Fruits:

Schizocarps comprising 4 mericarps, yellowish brown to brown, angular-obovoid to nearly pyramidal, .07 to .09 inch, apex truncate, densely hirsute; seeds 1 per mericarp.

Habitat:

Pastures, floodplains, river and stream banks, disturbed woodlands, farmsteads, and waste places.

Distribution:

Scattered throughout Kansas

Origin:

Introduced

Uses:

An infusion of the dried leaves and flowering tops was used to treat rabies, heart palpitations, and as a tonic and a stimulant.

Comments:

Leonurus, lion + tail, alluding to the inflorescence and cardiaca, heart, because infusions of the plant were used to treat heart ailments.

Motherwort