Leonurus quinquelobatus

Leonurus quinquelobatus, commonly known as five-lobed motherwort, is an erect perennial herb in the family Lamiaceae native to eastern Europe, the Caucasus, western Siberia and Central Asia, and naturalised in scattered localities elsewhere; it is regarded by some authorities as a subspecies or close ally of L. cardiaca and the two are frequently combined in commerce as motherwort. Plants grow 50 to 150 centimetres tall from a creeping rhizome, with stout, square, often purple-tinged stems clothed in spreading, somewhat rough hairs. The leaves are opposite and long-petioled; lower leaves are broadly orbicular in outline and palmately divided into five deep, coarsely toothed lobes from which the specific epithet derives, while upper leaves are smaller and three-lobed to entire. Inflorescences are crowded sessile axillary verticillasters forming long terminal leafy spikes; the small two-lipped pale pink to mauve flowers have a hairy upper lip and a five-toothed campanulate calyx with stiff awn-like teeth. The fruit consists of four small, three-angled brown nutlets enclosed within the persistent prickly calyx, which catches readily on clothing and animal fur.