Prostanthera incana

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Velvet mint-bush (Prostanthera incana) is a flowering plant in the mint family that is native to south-eastern continental Australia. It grows as an erect, moderately dense shrub 1–2.5 m tall with hairy branches. The leaves are egg-shaped, hairy, dull green on top and paler underneath, 9–18 mm long and 6–13 mm wide, on short stalks. The lilac flowers appear in clusters near the ends of branchlets from August to December. Each flower has small structures at the base and a short tube of sepals, with lilac petals 8–10 mm long. Velvet mint-bush mainly grows in forests and woodlands on shallow sandy soil near the coast of southern New South Wales, south from Craven in the Hunter Valley. There is also a small population near Dargo in Victoria. The species was first described in 1834 by George Bentham from Alan Cunningham’s unpublished notes, based on specimens collected in the Blue Mountains and near the Nepean and Warragamba Rivers.