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Rostrinucula dependens
This unusual shrubby mint from western China is Rostrinucula dependens (Lamiaceae).
A suckering, deciduous shrub, Rostrinucula has much to recommend it, as it bears copious purple flowers in long, pendulous, persistent bracteate verticillasters (the characteristic mint family inflorescence, having pairs of axillary cymes arising from opposite leaves or bracts and forming false whorls). Although a mint, Rostrinucula has little discernable fragrance, and while it has no English common name, the translated Latin is extremely descriptive: Rostr- = beak, -inus- = having, -culus = small; dependens = hanging. We propose the name droopy snout shrub or pendulous beaked-bract bush.
