Shiny bugleweed is an East Asian member of the mint family that grows 2½–4 ft (80–120 cm) tall at the edges of ponds and marshes. Its plump white underground stems are dug and eaten in Japan, and the above-ground parts are a traditional Chinese medicine called zelan. It does not grow wild in the United States.
Appearance
- Growth form
- An upright perennial with a thick, square stem that rarely branches, spreading by white .
- Leaves
- Paired, glossy, lance-shaped leaves 3–6 in (7–15 cm) long with coarsely toothed edges and almost no stalk.
- Flowers
- Tiny white flowers crowd in rings where the upper leaves meet the stem, from late summer into fall.
Look-alikes
Rough bugleweedLycopus asper
Location is the easiest clue: a wild bugleweed of this look in the United States is a native species such as rough bugleweed, while shiny bugleweed is an East Asian plant.
Why they get mixed upAmerican rough bugleweed was once treated as a variety of Lycopus lucidus, so older books use the same name for both.
Where it lives
- Typical habitats
- Pond and marsh edges
- Wetlands
- Range
- Native to Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan, and the Russian Far East. In older American references, the name Lycopus lucidus was also applied to a native North American bugleweed now called rough bugleweed (Lycopus asper), so US records under this name usually mean that plant.
Growing it
- Propagation
- Spreads underground by rhizomes.
Conservation
- IUCN Red List
- NENot EvaluatedNot yet assessed
Culture and stories
- Culture and stories
- In traditional Chinese medicine, the dried leafy stems (zelan) and the rhizomes (disun) are used separately.
More species to explore
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