Ballota nigra Black Horehound

A herbaceous, perennial labiate with a woody base which can grow up to 1m tall and become quite robust and bushy. It is often an untidy looking plant with hairy stems and toothed leaves. The unpleasant, pungent smell of the foliage and the rather dark reddish-mauve flowers with sharply pointed sepal segements are all good field chacters. It is generally a plant of rough ground and waste places in Britain and is rather local local in West Glamorgam where it is most frequent, but relatively uncommon, along the Gower coast. The flowers are very attractive to bees such as Green-eyed Flower-bee (Anthophora bimaculata), Wool Carder-bee (Anthidium manicatum) and Common Carder-bees (Bombus pascuorum), the latter of which can be found in good numbers, even late into the autumn, on the abundant succession of flowers these plants produce. Plants in Britain are usually referrable to Ballota nigra ssp. meridionalis.

Archaeophyte