Betonica officinalis

Betonica officinalis, the wood betony (also known as Stachys officinalis), is an erect perennial herb of the family Lamiaceae growing 20 to 60 cm tall from a short rootstock. Most of the foliage is gathered in a basal rosette of long-stalked, oblong, bluntly toothed leaves with a wrinkled, somewhat hairy surface; the square flowering stems carry only a few smaller leaf pairs. The reddish-purple two-lipped flowers are crowded into a dense, oblong terminal spike, often with a separate small whorl below it, blooming from early to late summer. The fruit consists of small nutlets. Native to Europe, North Africa and western Asia, wood betony grows in dry to moist grassland, open woodland, heaths, hedge banks and meadows, often on lighter neutral to acidic soils. It has a long history of use in European herbal medicine.