Photographs: Bantry, Co. Cork

Hybrid Woundwort Stachys x ambigua (Stachys palustris x sylvatica) Family: Lamiaceae Flowering time: July-September. Perennial. Native. A sterile hybrid between Marsh Woundwort, S. palustris and Hedge Woundwort, S. sylvatica. Very variable but looks like a larger version of Marsh Woundwort, S. palustris with darker red-purple flowers and short upper leaf-stalks. It is more/less sterile with few or no seeds ripening so spreads by fragments of root rhizomes and can frequently grow in the absence of either parent. Identification confirmed by Paul Green, BSBI Scattered distribution in Ireland on damp ground.

Hybrid Woundwort, Stachys x ambigua (Stachys palustris x sylvatica)