Rather smaller than some other members of this family, the leaves are rarely more than 4 cm long. A little branched plant with flowers on short stalks in whorls up the stem. Flowers pale pink to white with darker purple spots. There are 4 stamens and one style which is tipped by 2 unequal stigmas (found just under the top lip). The corolla is 10 to 16mm long. The lower lip of corolla is 3-lobed, the lowest lobe is also sometimes notched.

Records from this species should be confirmed by a County Recorder for botany.  It is on the VC55 Rare Plant Register, and therefore a specimen should not be taken.  Take detailed field photos and submit to NatureSpot as soon as possible; and if you think you have found it in a new location, inform the County Recorder as soon you can.(RPR)

Hedge banks, road verges, rough scrubby grassland and rocky outcrops, usually on dry calcareous soils. It may occur as a relic of cultivation.

Flowering July to September.

Perennial. 

Occasional but fairly widespread in areas of England and Wales with calcareous soils.

Rare in Leicestershire and Rutland.

It was not recorded in the Flora of Leicestershire (Primavesi & Evans, 1988) and was present in 2 tetrads in the Flora of Rutland (Messenger, 1971)

In the most recent VC55 Checklist (Jeeves 2011) it is listed as Native, calcareous grassland, Rare.  It is noted that some records may be escapes from cultivation.

It is on the current VC55 Rare Plant Register (Hall and Woodward, 2022) as Locally Rare - hedgerows and verges on the Oolite [limestone]