Wild Basil (*Clinopodium vulgare*)
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[](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/75/Clinopodium_vulgare%2C_Montour_Trail%2C_2024-09-24-3.jpg)
A hairy and aromatic little mint that grows fuzzy heads of pink flowers. In many references this is _Satureja vulgare,_ and it has gone by many other names as botanists have tried to sort out this branch of the mint family. It is either native or introduced or both: the [USDA PLANTS database](https://plants.usda.gov/home/plantProfile?symbol=CLVU) has it as native throughout its range in North America; the [Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center](https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=CLVU) says that it “is native in the northern part of its range but was probably introduced from Europe, where it is widespread, in the southern part”; other sources list it as entirely introduced.
The aroma is a little like basil and a lot like skunk.
The plants seem to like moist areas, including a shady lawn if the mower doesn’t reach them too often.
[](https://florapittsburghensis.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Satureja-vulgaris-Montour-Trail-2024-08-30.jpg)
Gray describes the genus *Satureja* and the species:
SATURÈJA [Tourn.] L. SAVORY, CALAMINT. Calyx tubular to bell-shaped, 10-13-nerved, naked or hairy in the throat. Corolla with a straight tube and an inflated throat, distinctly 2-lipped; the upper lip erect, flattish, entire or notched; the lower spreading, 3-parted, the middle lobe usually largest. Stamens 4, somewhat ascending. — Herbs or shrubs, with mostly purplish or whitish flowers produced all summer; inflorescence various. (The ancient Latin name.) Including _Clinopodium_ L., _Calamintha_ Lam.
_Flowers in sessile dense many-flowered clusters, and involucrate with conspicuous setaceous-subulate bracts; calyx nearly naked in the throat._
_S. vulgàris_ (L.) Fritsch. (basil.) Hairy, erect, 2-6 dm. high; leaves ovate, petioled, nearly entire; flowers lavender to pink, in globular clusters; hairy bracts as long as the calyx. (_Clinopodium_ L.; _Calamintha Clinopodium_ Benth.) —Woods, thickets, and alluvial banks, Nfd. to Va., О., Ind., and Man. (Eurasia.)
[](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b0/Clinopodium_vulgare%2C_Montour_Trail%2C_2024-09-24-5.jpg)
[](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a1/Clinopodium_vulgare%2C_Montour_Trail%2C_2024-09-24-4.jpg)
[](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/42/Clinopodium_vulgare%2C_Montour_Trail%2C_2024-09-24-2.jpg)
[](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/89/Clinopodium_vulgare%2C_Montour_Trail%2C_2024-09-24-1.jpg)
[](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0b/Clinopodium_vulgare%2C_Montour_Trail%2C_2024-09-24-6.jpg)
[](https://florapittsburghensis.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Satureja-vulgaris-Montour-Trail-2024-08-30-1.jpg)