Mosla dianthera

Mosla dianthera is an annual aromatic herb of the Lamiaceae family widely distributed across East and Southeast Asia, including China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam and the Himalayas. It typically grows 20 to 100 cm tall, with erect, branched, quadrangular stems clothed in retrorse pubescence and emitting a strong minty fragrance when crushed. Leaves are opposite, narrowly ovate to lanceolate, 1.5 to 3.5 cm long, sharply serrate, with conspicuous translucent glandular dots and short petioles. The inflorescence is a slender terminal raceme of dense, secund verticillasters subtended by small bracts; the small bilabiate flowers are pale pink to purplish with a two-lipped corolla and four didynamous stamens. Nutlets are subglobose, reticulate and brown. The species is common in moist roadsides, ditches, fields and disturbed habitats. Like its congeners, the plant yields essential oils rich in monoterpenes such as carvacrol and thymol.