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Skullcap: Little Blue Ferengi Busts

© Gregg Pasterick

A couple years back, while innkeeping up on Donner Summit, some guests were paging through one of my binders of photos. It was nice, hearing their "oo"s and "ah"s from the next room, but when they started to giggle I got concerned. There were some whispered puns and punch lines getting tossed around, which only seemed to raise the chuckles to belly laughs.

"Okay you two, what's going on in here?" I finally had to ask, unable to bear the thought of my photography being the butt of so much jocularity.

"Oh," one of the guests began, pausing to wipe tears from her eyes, "we're not laughing at your photography. It's marvel..." she stopped and let out another burst of laughter, "...marvelous."

"No," her husband said, jumping in, "the photos are great, it's just that this one..." he pointed, chuckling, "...looks like a ... uh ... Ferengi, on Star trek."

He was pointing at a photo of Skullcap. I looked at it and smiled. Now I'm no Star trek fan, and I wouldn't know a Ferengi if it bit me on the bum, but I had channel surfed past enough episodes of Deep Space 9 to know exactly who they were talking about, and I had to agree.

So what about Skullcap anyway? Surely there's more to it than its resemblance to a Star Trek character. Well, it seems to be one of the few wildflowers that come in more varieties east of the Rockies, compared to what you find in the west. It's a member of the Mint Family (Lamiaceae), and its weedy and unremarkable appearance makes it pretty easy to overlook if it's not in bloom. When it's in bloom, it's a weed covered with blue Ferengi busts.

The most common of the many eastern Skullcaps - 'the eastern Skullcaps'; it's got a bit of that hoity-toity "Willinghamingtons of South Hampton sound to it, huh? - is probably Mad-Dog Skullcap (Scutellaria lateriflora), so named for its use in treating those bitten by mad dogs. By 1887 it was concluded that Mad-dog Skullcap had no "medicinal virtues."

Mad-Dog Skullcap is also the most easily recognizable of the eastern species. Its flowers bloom along a one-sided raceme that grows our of the leaf axils.

Common Skullcap (S. epilobiifolia), Veined Skullcap (S. nervosa) and Smaller Skullcap (S. parvula) all have single flowers growing out of the leaf axils. The flowers of Hairy Skullcap (S. elliptica), Showy Skullcap (S. serrata), Downy Skullcap (S. incana) and Heart-Leaved Skullcap (S. ovata) each have terminal racmese of flowers. Little tiny hairs and leaf shape help identify these species; Showy skullcap is the only smooth one of the 4; down Skullcap has a hoary appearance caused by its minutes hairs while Hairy Skullcap is hairy, like the actor Dan Hedeya; Heart-leaved Skullcap is self-explanatory.