Irish wildflowers BSBI map

Black Horehound, Ballota nigra, Grafán dubh
Photographs: Crookhaven, Co. Cork

Black Horehound
Ballota nigra
Grafán dubh
Family: Lamiaceae

Flowering time: June-September. Perennial. Introduced.

Whorls of 2-lipped red-purple flowers in leaf axils, the funnel-shaped calyx with fine-pointed teeth. Leaves are short-stalked, oval-cordate and coarse-toothed. An erect, more/less hairy plant that has a strong smell when bruised. Height to 1m.

Very occasional and decreasing on disturbed, nutrient-rich waste ground, field edges and in hedgerows, often near habitation.

Black Horehound, Ballota nigra, Grafán dubh

Black Horehound, Ballota nigra, Grafán dubh
Black Horehound, Ballota nigra, Grafán dubh

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