There are lots of interesting plants outside this apartment building and on the boulevard. This is on the building side of the sidewalk. It's low to the ground, has opposite leaves that are very fuzzy with raised very curly edges. The stems are so covered in hairs that they appear white. I think it is not fragrant.
Well, I would not put money on it, but I think I remember checking for fragrance and finding none. Do you have anything to show me? I've been looking for Lamiaceae or specifically Plectranthus or coleus or solenostemon, but have not found anything. I will soon have to decide it's because I'm not looking for the right thing. The closest I've found is Wild Lime Coleus | RosyDawnGardens.com - Rosy Dawn Gardens, which is ruffled but the wrong colour and not fuzzy. I thought I posted this last night. I LOVE it when the system holds onto draft postings, even after the browser has been closed.
Those don't produce creeping rootstocks. This is a hardy perennial plant I have seen around, don't remember the name of. Something that I think is likely to be seen where herbs are a focus. As lemon balm would be, however searching that is not bringing up your plant.
My lemon balms look pretty similar, maybe less curly edge, when they thaw out of snow in the spring. And they don"t have strong fragrance then (I haven't seen member of Lamiaceae, that does not smell at all, if a leaf is crushed). Curly edge could be the result of a horticultural breeding, and not of general, natural property of the species. But I agree, that could easily be something else. There are plenty of species in Lamiaceae, to choose from.
Did a quick search and found this: Teucrium scorodonia crispum Teucrium scorodonia ‘Crispum Marginatum’ | Lambley Nursery
YES! Thank you! What did you do a "quick search" on? I did very many very not quick searches and arrived at nothing close. Seriously, I want to know what you used for search terms. Or did you browse some sites? The first time I heard the name Teucrium was last summer when I posted something that turned out to be Teucrium hircanicum (or on some sites, T. hyrcanicum), which looks nothing like this, though if I were to strip the leaf margins and hairs, might look a little similar. I didn't remember that name at any rate. I'm seeing Teucrium scorodonia 'Crispum' and Teucrium scorodonia 'Crispum Marginatum', as you've shown, with one site alternating between the two in every sentence, though most sites pick one or the other. Teucrium scorodonia 'Crispum' | curly wood sage/RHS Gardening lists it as 'Crispum', gives as synonyms Teucrium × lucidrys 'Crispum' and Teucrium fruticans 'Crispum'. Common name is Curly Wood Sage. Jekkapedia: Teucrium scorodonia 'Crispum' (Curly Wood Sage) – Jekka's (jekkas.com) says the bitter tasting leaves can be used in beer making, but another site says that they impart too much colour. @Ron B mentioned creeping rootstocks. The page at Teucrium — Germander - UC Master Gardener Program of Sonoma County (ucanr.edu) suggests that this is a plant to avoid: "Attractive soft green leaves with ruffled margins are luring, but underground stems spread rampantly to the point of invasiveness and are extremely difficult to eradicate."
And there it is! One hit for teucrium, but that would have been enough. Looking through my history, I see I did perennial fuzzy leaves frilly margins, fuzzy frilly leaves, lamiaceae ruffled edges, frilly edge lamiaceae, and many others. I picked the word ruffled from the descriptions of the kale and lettuces that were coming up. I did not think of the word curly. And in the descriptions I've read, they used the word felted, not fuzzy or hairy. But lamiaceae curly felted leaves does not bring it up for me. Thanks.
I guess, I was lucky enough to include the "curly", that happens to be part of the common name of this plant. I just picked my search words from my previous message, #7: Opposite fuzzy leaves with super curly edges, fuzzy stems
OH, in my subject line, but I didn't use it in my search. Duh! I'll bet I did use it to start, then changed to frilly when I saw that word in the frilly edged vegetables and I never went back.
I'm just a little early for the flowers on the Teucrium scorodonia 'Crispum Marginatum' - they get a bit more interesting than this, more tubular with purple stamens protruding.
