White horehound
Marrubium vulgare
Family · Lamiaceae · Harmless
The whitish, wrinkled mint that grows on trodden ground, stockyards and village verges, almost always where livestock has been. It was Europe's cough plant before pharmacy syrups.
Roadsides and waste ground · Fields and pasture · Town and roadside · Montado
Also known ascommon horehound
How to tell it
The whole plant is covered in white felt, and the leaves are round, deeply wrinkled and round-toothed. Small white flowers in tight rings around the stem at several levels. On drying, the calyxes bear hooks that catch on clothes.
What it is confused with
No dangerous lookalikes known in the Iberian Peninsula.
What it is for
A traditional cough infusion and syrup across Europe and North Africa, and a liqueur bitter. It is very bitter, which always limited the dose by itself.
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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