Teucrium argutum, commonly known as native germander,[1] is a species of flowering plant in the family Lamiaceae, and is endemic to eastern Australia. It is a perennial herb often suckering, with hairy, broadly egg-shaped leaves with toothed or wavy edges, and pink-purple flowers.
Teucrium argutum is a perennial herb that typically grows to a height of, often suckering and scrambling, with densely hairy branches that are square in cross-section. The leaves are arranged in opposite pairs, broadly egg-shaped to triangular, long and wide on a petiole long. The leaves are hairy and have toothed or wavy edges. The flowers are arranged singly at the base of leaf-like bracts on a pedicel up to long. The five sepals are long, joined at the base for about half their length, and densely covered with stalked and sessile glands. The petals are pink-purple and long. Flowering occurs from December to June.[2]
Teucrium argutum was first formally described in 1810 by Robert Brown in his Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae et Insulae Van Diemen.[3] [4] In 2018, Anthony Bean selected the specimens collected near the Hawkesbury River as the lectotype.[5]
Native germander grows in forest and woodland from near Lakeland on Cape York Peninsula in Queensland, south to near Sydney.