Helmet flower

Scutellaria integrifolia, the helmet flower or hyssop skullcap, is a perennial herb of the mint family native to the eastern and southeastern United States, from New York and Ohio south to Florida and west to Texas. It produces erect, square stems 30-70 cm tall that are densely covered with fine, downy hairs. The opposite leaves are distinctive within the genus for being entire and untoothed; lower leaves are short-stalked, lanceolate to oblong-elliptic, and 2-5 cm long, becoming progressively narrower and sessile upward. From late spring through midsummer the stems bear loose, leafy racemes of strikingly large tubular two-lipped flowers, 1.5-3 cm long, in shades of blue to violet, with the upper lip forming a characteristic galeate hood. The calyx bears a small upturned, scale-like protuberance that gives the genus its common name of skullcap. It grows in open woods, pine savannas and old fields on sandy or rocky soils.