Scutellaria indica

Shrubs perennial. Stems dark purple, 1 to few, 8-28 cm tall, ascending-erect, ca. 1-1.2 mm in diam., hairy especially on angles and apex. Petiole 0.4-1.4(-2.8) cm; leaf blade 0.8-2.6(-3) × 0.8-2.3 cm, base truncate to cuneate, margin crenate, apex rounded to acute. Racemes terminal, 2-8(-12) cm; bracts sessile, 3-6 × 1-2.5 mm, margin entire, basal ones leaflike, ovate, to 1.7 cm, puberulent, margin crenate. Pedicel 2.5-3 mm, puberulent. Calyx ca. 2.5 mm, hirsute, puberulent; scutellum ca. 1.5 mm, erect, dilated to 3 mm in fruit. Corolla blue-purple, 1-1.8 cm, sparsely puberulent outside, pubescent on lips inside, to ca. 4.5 mm wide at throat; middle lobe of lower lip dark purple spotted, circular-ovate, slightly constricted at middle, apex emarginate; lateral lobes ovate. Nutlets chestnut to dark brown, ovoid, ca. 1 × less than 1 mm, tuberculate, tubercles acuminate with a minute apical whorl of hooks, adaxially umbonate near base. Fl. and fr. Feb-Jun.

Hillsides, grasslands, open rocky areas, roadsides, sparse forests; 0-1500 m. Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Yunnan, Zhejiang [Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam.

References: Flora of China,Skullcap: Potential Medicinal Crop,Alpine Garden Society
Photos: wikimedia-bastus917,P. Pelser & J.F. Barcelona