Mosla scabra

Mosla scabra is an aromatic annual herb in the Lamiaceae native to eastern Asia, including China (where it is widespread south of the Yellow River), Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. Plants grow 30-90 cm tall with erect, square stems clothed in downward-pointing scabrid hairs that give the species its epithet. The leaves are opposite, ovate to ovate-lanceolate, 1.5-4 cm long, with coarsely serrate margins, abundant glandular dots on the lower surface, and a strong pungent mint-like scent when crushed. Small purplish-pink to pale-violet flowers about 4-5 mm long are densely arranged in terminal racemes 3-8 cm long; the calyx is bilabiate with the upper lip three-toothed and the lower two-toothed, and the corolla is two-lipped with four short stamens. The fruit consists of four small reticulate nutlets. It grows in mountain slopes, forest edges, grassy hillsides, and disturbed ground from low elevations to about 1100 m.