Wild basil
Clinopodium vulgare
Family · Lamiaceae · Harmless
The wood-edge mint relative with purple-pink flowers in tight whorls along the stem, each whorl ringed by a crown of fine hairy bracts like a brush.
Oak woods · Roadsides and waste ground · Uplands · Scrubland
Also known asbasil thyme, cushion calamint
How to tell it
An upright, very hairy plant with a four-angled stem. Opposite, oval leaves with shallow teeth. The flowers gather in dense separated whorls along the stem, purple-pink, and beneath each whorl is a ring of very hairy needle-like bracts, which is the genus's mark. A mild oregano scent when rubbed.
What it is confused with
Oregano
Origanum vulgare
Oregano gathers its flowers in corymbs at the branch tips and smells strongly; wild basil holds them in whorls along the stem, with a ring of hairy bracts beneath each whorl, and smells far less.
What it is for
A traditional infusion across Europe, and used as a poor substitute for oregano. Traditional use, in the past. It is worth it above all as a lesson: it shows that a mint relative is identified by the whorled arrangement of its flowers, not by colour.
With documented traditional uses. Not a therapeutic indication and not a dose.
Where it occurs
Each square is an area with recorded observations of this plant. The lighter background is the set of areas where any of the entries has been observed, and serves as a reference. Note what this is not: it is not where the plant lives, it is where people record it, so trails and towns always look fuller than the mountains. Data from GBIF.
Sources
Community
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