Keshav Jeev-Van FoundationHarmony in Diversity
Join the Biodiversity CircleExplore Our Programmes

Plant

Wide Spikenard

Mesosphaerum suaveolens

Wide Spikenard (Mesosphaerum suaveolens) photographed by Devendra Bhardwaj

Image: Devendra Bhardwaj · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0 · Vaishali Nagar, Jaipur, Rajasthan · Resized

Wide Spikenard (Mesosphaerum suaveolens) photographed by Devendra Bhardwaj

Image: Devendra Bhardwaj · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0 · Vaishali Nagar, Jaipur, Rajasthan · Resized

Scientific name
Mesosphaerum suaveolens
Family
Lamiaceae, order Lamiales
Group
Plant

A strongly scented herb with blue-purple flowers.

  • Spot it Square stems, aromatic leaves and small blue-purple flowers.
  • Home Waste ground and roadsides.
  • Food web Bees and butterflies visit the flowers.
  • Why it matters Feeds bees and butterflies on open ground and covers bare soil.

Read more: Mesosphaerum suaveolens on Wikipedia

Sources and credits

Records and field notes

  • RajasthanDevendra Bhardwaj has 2 verified records of this species on iNaturalist, between 2024 and 2025, in Jaipur.[20]

Sources

  1. Devendra Bhardwaj. iNaturalist observations and notes, with place and date (inaturalist.org/people/devendrabhardwaj) (field record). The observer's own dated records and notes, with places. Statements in his notes are his own and were not independently checked by KJVF.
  2. GBIF Backbone Taxonomy and GBIF species data (family, order, Hindi names, IUCN category) (database). Open biodiversity data. Used for classification, Hindi common names and the IUCN category where one is given.
  3. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (opening lines of each species article, CC BY-SA 4.0). The link on each entry goes to the article (reference). Not peer reviewed. Only the opening description is used, and statements about origin or medicinal use are left out.
  4. Short introductions and key points written with AI help (Google Gemini and Claude) and checked against GBIF where possible (reference). AI-assisted text for general readers. Please check important details before relying on them.

The tag before each record shows the place it was checked for.

More in Flowering plants