Japanese name: オウギカズラ（扇葛） Scientific name:Ajuga japonica
[Overview]
A perennial 10–20 cm tall, found in moist shade in deciduous forests in the mountains.
The stem has 4 ridges and sparse curly hairs.
After flowering, it sends out stolons from the base of the stem that creep far along the ground surface.
Leaves are opposite, pentagonal-cordate, 2–5 cm long, with uneven, blunt, shallow notches, and the leaf base does not run down the petiole.
The petiole is about as long as the leaf.
Flowers are borne 1–3 at a time in the leaf axils in the upper part of the stem.
The flowers are pale bluish purple, lipped, and 2.5 cm long; the upper lip is 2-lobed, and the lower lip is 3-lobed with the central lobe further shallowly divided into 2.
The fruit is a mericarp.
[Notes]
The Japanese name likens the leaves to a fan.
