Cat’s whiskers
Orthosiphon aristatus, Fam. Lamiaceae
Slender herb usually 20–50cm high, branches sparsely hairy.
Weed Category: | |
Weed: | No |
Form or habit: | Herb |
Family: | Lamiaceae |
Leaf: | Leaves with lamina narrow-ovate to ovate or rhombic, 3–16 x 2–4.5cm, membranous, margins coarsely toothed, surfaces sparsely to moderately hairy and moderately covered sessile glands; petiole 1–6cm long. |
Flower conspicuous: | Conspicuous |
Flower colour: |
White, Lilac |
Flower description: | Calyx curved-campanulate, 2.5–4.5mm long. Corolla usually 10–16mm long, white, pale lilac or lilac; upper lip shallowly 4-lobed, recurved. Stamens greatly exserted. Style 5–6cm long, stigma club-shaped and shortly 2-fid. April and October. |
Fruit conspicuous: | Conspicuous |
Fruit colour: |
Brown, Green, Red |
Fruit: | |
Fruit description: | Seeds are not covered by fruit flesh, rather the open petals and uncovered seed after pollination results in seed directly exposed to the environment. Oval seed with a slight taper at the end attached to the base of the petals. Young seed is pale green and white turning red brown and dark brown as seed ripen. |
Habitat: | Rainforest. |
Distribution | Queensland, New South Wales, New Guinea, Melanesia, Asia. |
Food source for: | |
Toxicity: | No toxicity known |
Origin: | Australia, New Guinea, Melanesia, Asia. |
Notes: | Seed germination within eight days. |
Information sources: | Febjislami S. et al. (2019) Morphological characters, flowering and seed germination of the Indonesian medicinal plant Orthosiphon aristatus. Biodiversitas. 20. 2., PlantNET (2022) Orthosiphon aristatus (Blume) Miq. FloraOnline. |