Meehan's mint

Description

Meehania cordata, also known as Meehan's mint or creeping mint, is a perennial plant of the genus Meehania, within the family Lamiaceae found in moist shady banks west of Pennsylvania to Illinois, Tennessee, and North Carolina around the month of June. Meehania, which was named by Nathaniel Lord Britton for the late Thomas Meehan, Philadelphian botanist, is a dicot perennial plant with calyx rather obliquely 5-toothed, 15 nerved. Corolla ample, expanded at the throat; the upper lip flattish or concave, 2-lobed, the lower 3-cleft, the middle lobe largest. Stamens 4, ascending, the lower pair shorter; anther-cells parallel. Low stoloniferous herb, with a pale purplish flowers. Meehania cordata, which is one of seven species of the genus Meehania and named by the English botanist Thomas Nuttall, are low, with slender runners, hairy; leaves broadly heart-shaped, crenate, petioled, the floral shorter than the calyx; whorls few-flowered, at the summit of short ascending stems; corolla hairy inside, 2–3.5 cm. long; stamens shorter than the upper lip. It is found mostly in eastern North America. In the states of Illinois Kentucky North Carolina Ohio Pennsylvania Tennessee Virginia West Virginia Meehania is a genus of flowering plants in the family Lamiaceae, first described in 1894. It is native to China, Japan, and the eastern United States.