Skullcap
Scutellaria Tuberosa, Benth. Mint Family
Stems.—Several inches high, or at length trailing, and a foot long; from small tubers. Leaves.—One inch long and less; not aromatic. Flowers.—Axillary; blue-purple. Calyx.—Bilabiate. Corolla.—Six lines or more long; tubular; bilabiate. Stamens.—Four; in pairs; ascending; contained in the helmet. Ovary.—Of four seedlike nutlets. Style filiform. Hab.—Hillsides, from San Diego northward; probably throughout the State.
The bright-green herbage and the rich purple-blue flowers of the little skullcap may be looked for early in February. In the north they grow upon dry, stony hill-slopes under the chaparral, while southward they often affect the walls of cañons, among moist, luxuriant vegetation.
Though borne in the axils of the opposite leaves, the pretty blossoms, by a twist of their pedicels, stand side by side in pairs, in a very sociable way. The curious little two-lipped calyx resembles an old-fashioned Quaker bonnet.
Another species—S. angustifolia, Pursh.—has linear to oblong leaves, an inch long; flowers an inch or more long, the lower lobe of whose corolla is hairy within, and the root is not tuberous. It is otherwise like the above.
S. Californica, Gray, is very similar to the last species, but has cream-white flowers. This is found in early summer upon dry banks.
SKULLCAP—Scutellaria tuberosa.