Ajuga parviflora - Small-Flowered Bugleweed

Small-Flowered Bugleweed is an annual or short-lived perennial herb. Stems are spreading or ascending, 10-25 cm, usually unbranched, sparsely to densely covered with long villous hairs. Leaves sometimes for a rosette, variable in size, up to 4.5 x 2.5 cm, obovate-spoonshaped to elliptic, narrowed into stalk, entire to irregularly toothed, with eglandular hairs. Stalks on basal leaves are up to 2 cm. Stem leaves are smaller than basal and decreasing up the stem. Inflorescence is a 8-12-flowered verticillaster. Flowers could be up to 18. Sepal cup is 2.5-4 mm with a similar indumentum to stem, bell-shaped. Teeth are triangular lanceshaped, pointed, as long as tube, basally enlarged as nutlets mature. Flowers are pink, bluish white to white, 5-6 mm, hairy. Tube is slender, shortly protruding from sepals. Stamens usually remain inside the flower-tube. Nutlets are pale brown, transversely rugose with prominent ridges, about 1.5 x 1 mm. Small-Flowered Bugleweed is found in Afghanistan, Pakistam, and in the Himalayas from Kashmir to Nepal, at altitudes of 600-1500 m. Flowering: March-June.