The Skullcap is an orchid looking small flower that resembles a helmet worn by medieval knights in a jousting tournament. There are several hundred varieties worldwide and a dozen, at least, in Georgia. Many are rare and endangered and one, which lives in Northwest Georgia along the Tennessee border may only have a 100 plants surviving in Georgia. This is Scutelleria montana or the Mountain Skullcap. I thought many years ago that I had located a group on Clingman’s Dome in the Smoky Mountains but I quickly discovered is was a more common but similarly looking Turtlehead – Chelone obliqua.
The mountain Skullcap is an interesting flower with its white “hat” covering a blue lip which is found on orchids. It is not an orchid but, instead, a member of the Mint family. Its four-sided stem is an instant give-a-way and the rounded stem of the Turtlehead told me I wasn’t dealing with a Mint.
The Mad Dog Skullcap is more common and blooms along the square stem and now you can see why I confused the Turtlehead with a Skullcap. The square stem is an obvious earmark of any mint. Where did it get its name – Mad Dog Skullcap? Native Americans and early colonists believed a Skullcap tea would cure rabies. Maybe it does. I don’t intend to find out. The blossoms are small whereas the Turtlehead’s are much larger and the Turtlehead is more of a closed blossom limiting its pollinators to small native bees. Draw a few eyes on the top petals and you can see the turtle’s head.
The Mint family is huge and perhaps in the next group we can explore it more fully.
74 Journeys 