Small-leaf Giant Hyssop

Description

Agastache parvifolia is a species of flowering plant in the mint family known by the common name small-leaf giant hyssop. It is endemic to far northern California, where it grows in woodlands. It is an uncommon species and is sometimes considered a local subspecies of Agastache urticifolia. This plant is an aromatic perennial herb producing an erect stem with triangular serrated leaves on petioles. This species is characterized by leaves under 5 centimeters long and 3.5 wide. The inflorescence is a spike occupying the top of the stem. The flowers have pink-tipped green sepals and tubular pink corollas. Agastache is a genus of aromatic flowering herbaceous perennial plants in the family Lamiaceae. It contains 22 species, mainly native to North America, one species native to eastern Asia. The common names of the species are a variety of fairly ambiguous and confusing "hyssops" and "mints"; as a whole the genus is known as giant hyssops or hummingbird mints. Most species are very upright, 0.5-3 m tall, with stiff, angular stems clothed in toothed-edged, lance shaped leaves ranging from 1-15 cm long and 0.5-11 cm broad depending on the species. Upright spikes of tubular, two-lipped flowers develop at the stem tips in summer. The flowers are usually white, pink, mauve, or purple, with the bracts that back the flowers being of the same or a slightly contrasting color. Agastache derives from the Ancient Greek words ἄγαν (ágan) "very much" and στάχυς (stákhus) "ear of grain", describing the flower spikes. The genus was established in 1762 by Jan Frederik Gronovius in the second edition of his controversial Flora Virginica, based on the specimens and notes of John Clayton. It is a member of subfamily Nepetoideae, which contains a large proportion of the world's aromatic culinary herbs. Within its subfamily, it belongs to the mint tribe (Mentheae), and therein to the catmint subtribe (Nepetinae). The Nepetinae are robustly supported by cladistic analyses of morphological and DNA sequence data, and were recognized as early as the mid-late 19th century.