Seedling of motherwort.

Motherwort Latin name Leonurus artemisia (Laur.) S. Y. Hu F alias Yi mother artemisia, Yi mother ayi, safflower ayi, Kun Cao binomial law Leonurus artemisia kingdom kingdom Plantae kingdom Angiosperms phylum Gemophyta subclass Gynophyta subclass Symplocaceae order Tubuliflora family Labiatae subfamily Wild sesame tribe wild sesame tribe genus Motherwort genus Species Distribution area: China, USSR, Korea, Japan, tropical Asia, Africa, and the Americas. Morphological characters Annual or biennial, with a main root densely fibrous above. Stem erect, usually 30-120 cm tall, obtusely 4-angled, slightly sulcate, with inverted strigose hairs, especially dense at nodes and angles, sometimes nearly glabrous at base, much branched, or with fertile branchlets only above middle of stem. Leaves highly variable in outline, lower stem leaves ovate in outline, base broadly cuneate, palmately 3-lobed, lobes oblong-rhombic to ovate-orbicular, usually 2.5-6 cm long, 1.5-4 cm wide, re-divided on the lobes, green and strigose above, veins slightly sunken, light green below, sparsely pilose and glandular punctate, veins prominent, petiole slender, 2-3 cm long, slightly winged distally due to decurrent leaf bases. Ventral surface sulcate, abaxial surface rounded, strigose; leaves in middle part of stem rhombic in outline, smaller, usually divided into 3 or occasionally more oblong-linear lobes, base narrowly cuneate, petiole 0.5-2 cm; uppermost bracts of inflorescence subsessile, linear or linear-lanceolate, 3-12 cm long, 2-8 mm wide, entire or sparsely dentate. Verticillasters axillary, with 8-15 flowers, rounded-globose in outline, 2-2.5 cm in diameter, mostly distant and forming long spikes; bracteoles spinelike, projecting upward, slightly curved at base, shorter than calyx tube, ca. 5 mm, with adnate microvilli; pedicels absent. Calyx tubular-campanulate, 6-8 mm long, outside with adnate puberries, inside surface puberulent more than 1/3 from base, 5-veined, conspicuous, teeth 5, the first 2 teeth connivent, ca. 3 mm long, the last 3 shorter, equal, ca. 2 mm long, teeth all broadly triangular, apex spinose-acuminate. Corolla pink to light purplish red, 1-1.2 cm long, outside partly pilose on protruding calyx tube, corolla tube ca. 6 mm long, equal in size, inner surface with subhorizontal ring of inconspicuous scaly hairs 1/3 from base, ring of hairs interrupted abaxially, more or less scaly hairs on its upper surface, limb 2-lipped, upper lip straight out, concave, oblong, ca. 7 mm long, 4 mm wide, entire, inner surface glabrous, margin ciliate, lower lip margin ciliate, lower lip slightly shorter than upper lip, inner surface sparsely covered with scalelike hairs at base, 3-lobed, middle lobe obcordate, apex emarginate, margin thinly membranous, base contracted, lateral lobes ovoid, minute. Stamens 4, all extending below upper lip, parallel, anterior pair longer, filaments filiform, flattened, sparsely covered with squamous hairs, anthers ovoid, bilocular. Style filiform, slightly exceeding stamens and equaling upper lip, glabrous, apex equally 2-lobed, lobes subulate. Disk flat-topped. Ovary brown, glabrous. Nutlets oblong-triangular, 2.5 mm long, apically truncate and slightly broad, base cuneate, pale brown, smooth. Flowering usually in June-September, fruiting in September-October. [1]