The jockeys cap, or striped mintbush, is an attractive, green, multi-branched erect shrub up to 2 m high. It features cap-shaped flowers, giving it it's name. These occur growing from nooks and crannies amongst the rocky outcrops along ridgelines at Fowlers Gap.

Pick a couple of leaves and roll them in your fingers for a burst of minty freshness!

Bark: stems are glabrous or nearly so, more or less terete with 2 faint grooves.
Leaves: narrowly ovate, 10-35 x 2-8 mm, dull, green, glabrous, opposite, aromatic (minty), nearly sessile.
Flowers: solitary in upper axils, sometimes appearing clustered. Calyx 7-10 mm long, 2-lipped, glabrous. Corolla 10-17 mm long, throat opened widely, white, prominently purple-striped inside and with orange-yellow dots on lower inside surface. 4 stamens, each with an appendage 2-3 mm long between anthers.
Fruit: consists of 4 nutlets.
Source: Frank Kutsche and Brendan Lay (2003). Field guide to the plants of outback South Australia. Department of Water, Land and Biodiversity Conservation, South Australia, ISBN 0 7590 1052 8.
Phillip Moore (2005). A guide to plants of inland Australia. Reed New Holland, ISBN 1 876334 86 X.
Photos: Ian Roach

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