Prostanthera scutata

Prostanthera scutata is a species of flowering plant in the family Lamiaceae and is endemic to Western Australia. It is a small, erect, compact shrub with densely hairy branches, elliptic to narrow elliptic leaves and pale blue or faintly violet flowers.

Description
Prostanthera magnifica is an erect, compact shrub that typically grows to a height of 20–30 cm and has densely hairy branches. The leaves are elliptic to narrow elliptic, 1.5–11 mm long and 1–6 mm wide on a petiole 0.5–2 mm long. The flowers are arranged in bunches of six to twenty near the ends of branchlets, each flower on a pedicel 1.5–2.5 mm long. The sepals are dark greyish green, forming a tube 2.5–4 mm long with two egg-shaped to broadly egg-shaped lobes, the lower lobe 2–4.5 mm long and 2.5–4.5 mm wide, the upper lobe 4–8.5 mm long and 4.5–8 mm wide. The petals are pale blue to faintly violet, 12–20 mm long forming a tube 14–15 mm long with two lips. The central lobe of the lower lip is 3.5–5 mm long and 3–4.5 mm wide and the side lobes 2.5–4.5 mm long and 3–4.5 mm wide. The upper lip is 2.2–5 mm long and 5–8 mm wide with a central notch 1–2.5 mm deep. Flowering occurs in October, December or January.

Taxonomy
Prostanthera scutata was first formally described in 1964 by Charles Austin Gardner in the Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia from specimens he collected near the Hutt River.

Distribution and habitat
This mintbush grows in gravelly soil in the Avon Wheatbelt and Geraldton Sandplains biogeographic regions of Western Australia.

Conservation status
This mintbush is classified as "Priority Two" by the Western Australian Government Department of Parks and Wildlife meaning that it is poorly known and from only one or a few locations.