Found growing by roadsides, on dry banks, mostly on lime, this downy perennial wildflower blooms from July to September. It's a stiff, upright plant, quite aromatic, and grows to 70cm high. On reddish-tinged stems it bears terminal compact clusters of pink-mauve two-lipped flowers (6-8mm long), the bracts are also reddish and longer than the calyx. The stalked, opposite leaves are oval and pointed. This is a native plant, much loved by insects, and it belongs to the family Lamiaceae.
My earliest record of Wild Marjoram is seeing it growing along the roads of the Burren in Co Clare in 1979 and I photographed it there in 2009.
If you are satisfied you have correctly identified this plant, please submit your sighting to the National Biodiversity Data Centre
