Pyramid bugle

Ajuga pyramidalis, the pyramidal bugle, is a low perennial herb in the family Lamiaceae growing only about 5–20 cm tall. From a basal rosette of stalked, ovate, hairy leaves with slightly wavy margins it sends up square, stiff, upright hairy stems clothed in opposite pairs of conspicuous leafy bracts that diminish upwards, giving the inflorescence its characteristic narrow pyramidal outline. From June to August the leaf axils bear small, two-lipped bluish-violet flowers with a very short upper lip and a prominent three-lobed lower lip. The fruit is a four-chambered schizocarp whose nutlets bear oily elaiosomes attractive to ants, an adaptation for seed dispersal. The species is native to mountains of northern, central and southern Europe and the Caucasus, growing in open grassland, heathland and rock ledges on nearly neutral, often rocky soils up to about 2,700 m. It is rare in Britain, occurring chiefly in Scotland and northwest England.