Purple Giant Hyssop

(Agastache scrophulariifolia)

 

Color Photograph: © by and courtesy of W.S. Justice, Smithsonian Instituion

Line Drawing: Britton, N.L., and A. Brown. 1913. An Illustrated Flora of the Northern United States and Canada, Second Edition.

 

Purple Giant Hyssop (Agastache scrophulariifolia)

Identification: Flowers purple or purple-pink, tubular, with a hanging, biblike lower petal lobe. Two pairs of protruding stamens, one pair curving upward, the other pair downward. Style thin, long, protruding, bifid at the tip. Flowers arranged in dense clusters in the upper leaf axils, the upper clusters fusing to give the appearance of a terminal spike. Entire plant hairy. Stem square purple, and leaves in opposite pairs. Leaves heart-shaped, coarsely dentate on the outer margin, and with white hairs on the undersides. Plant 1 to 5 feet in height.

Distribution: Southeastern Canada and the northeastern United States southward to Georgia and Missouri.

Habitat: Purple Giant Hyssop is found in wet woods and thickets.

Flowering period: July to September.

Purple Giant Hyssop (Agastache scrophulariifolia)

Similar Species:

In contrast to the purple to pink flowers of Purple Giant Hyssop the flowers of Blue Giant Hyssop are blue-violet, and those of Yellow Giant Hyssop are yellow.

Similar Species

No Similar Species