Mad-dog Scullcap Care

Scutellaria lateriflora, commonly known as blue skullcap, mad dog skullcap and side-flowering skullcap, is a low-growing herbaceous perennial in the mint family that typically grows to 2-3’ tall. It is native to wetland areas from Quebec and Newfoundland west to British Columbia and south to California, Louisiana and Florida. Steyermark describes its range in Missouri as “low wet woods, swampy meadows, alluvial thickets, gravel bars, river flood plain forests, borders of sloughs, spring branches, streams, swamps, lowland and sink-hole ponds, and moist ledges of limestone and sandstone bluffs.” Three variations in flower color occur, sometimes being listed as S. lateriflora f. lateriflora (blue-purple corollas), S. latiflora f. albiflorsa(white corollas) and S. lateriflora f. rodantha (pink corollas).Tiny, tubular, two-lipped, snapdragon-like, blue flowers (to 1/3”) bloom solitary or in one-sided racemes, mostly from the leaf axils but occasionally terminal from July to early October. Square stems are clad with thin, opposite, mostly glabrous, ovate to lanceolate leaves which feature toothed margins, subordate or rounded bases and pinnate veins. Leaves are dark green above but light green beneath.