ballota pseudodictamnus

 

My first sight of Ballota pseudodictamnus was of photos in a book. Those photos showed a plant with rows of silvery cupped leaves on erect stems. I had to have some despite reading that it wouldn't survive a winter in my climate. I think I brought a plant back with me after a trip to Oregon.

What a disappointment! The first year after I planted it, I wasn't sure that it was alive. The leaves were barely a quarter of an inch across and silvery with brown undertones. It grew no new stems. The next year, it shot up a bunch of silvery stems, with leaves about an inch across. My plant grew with decidedly un-architectural leaves. They were silvery but of a standard mint-family shape, without any of the even patterns of cupping that I so admired in the photos.

Satellite-dish pale chartreuse bracts formed with tiny almost insignificant sage-like flowers in the center. The weak stems flopped when wet with water, and became lax when heavy with bracts. As the leaves aged, they lost their silveryness and became more olive green. I cut it back midseason, and new stems formed after a few weeks.
 

It's not an impressive plant. The "pseudodictamnus' part suggests that it looks like Dittany, and I suppose that it does, with it's silvery leaves, but it is a much more floppy plant with a completely different flowering habit. It has a somewhat odd musty/bitter fragrance when cut, somewhat like sage and artichokes. I bought a few more plants and also a dwarf form, all of which looked and behaved in exactly the same way.
 

 

Maybe it's just for sentimental reasons, but I've kept this plant despite several times deciding to take it out (I took out all of the other B. pseudodictamnus' that I bought). But I don't begrudge it the space I've given it. I've even divided and replanted divisions. It is very drought tolerant once established. The silvery leaves and the chartreuse bracts provide a nice supporting role for the other plants. Its floppy habit is a nice counterbalance to stiffer plants such as roses or rosemary. The floppiness allows it to cover the space left by bulbs. It doesn't self-seed in my yard. It actually looks a bit like Helichrysum petiolare except that it is fully hardy in my yard. It spreads slowly from the base, unlike the rampant runners of other plants in the mint family, so for a plant that seems unkempt, it actually has wonderful manners.