Scutellaria ovataHill

heartleaf skullcap

WFO wfo-0000308219 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Scutellaria ovata, photographed by Joseph Aubert
fig. a Joseph Aubert, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-06-04 / obs. 204030726
Scutellaria ovata, photographed by Ava
fig. b Ava, CC0 1.0 / obs. 201665067
Scutellaria ovata, photographed by Joseph Aubert
fig. c Joseph Aubert, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 196411746
Scutellaria ovata, photographed by Elias
fig. d Elias, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 136828429
Scutellaria ovata, photographed by John Kees
fig. e John Kees, CC0 1.0 / obs. 127633051
Scutellaria ovata, photographed by Steve Waslo
fig. f Steve Waslo, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 94103226
Scutellaria ovata, photographed by Steve Waslo
fig. g Steve Waslo, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 86046959
Scutellaria ovata, photographed by threelark
fig. h threelark, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 81420778

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 23 botanical countries

Regions where Scutellaria ovata is native: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mexico Northeast, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin AlabamaArkansasGeorgiaIllinoisIndianaIowaKansasKentuckyLouisianaMarylandMexico NortheastMinnesotaMississippiMissouriNorth CarolinaOhioOklahomaSouth CarolinaTennesseeTexasVirginiaWest VirginiaWisconsin
Native distribution of Scutellaria ovata, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Alabama ALA NORTHERN AMERICA
Arkansas ARK
Georgia GEO
Illinois ILL
Indiana INI
Iowa IOW
Kansas KAN
Kentucky KTY
Louisiana LOU
Maryland MRY
Mexico Northeast MXE
Minnesota MIN
Mississippi MSI
Missouri MSO
North Carolina NCA
Ohio OHI
Oklahoma OKL
South Carolina SCA
Tennessee TEN
Texas TEX
Virginia VRG
West Virginia WVA
Wisconsin WIS

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Flowering 553 in flower of 667 examined

Peak flowering in Jun. Each bar is the share of Scutellaria ovata observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 553 of 667 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 5 months have fewer than 5 examined observations, so no proportion is drawn for them. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Also published as 26 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Scutellaria angustifolia Adams ex Benth.
  • Scutellaria caroliniana Walter
  • Scutellaria cordifolia Muhl. ex Benth.
  • Scutellaria cordifolia var. minor C.Mohr
  • Scutellaria cordifolia var. pilosissima Mack. & Bush
  • Scutellaria cuthbertii Alexander
  • Scutellaria misissipiana M.Martens
  • Scutellaria ovata subsp. calcarea Epling
  • Scutellaria ovata subsp. mississipiana (M.Martens) Epling
  • Scutellaria ovata subsp. pseudovenosa Epling
  • Scutellaria ovata subsp. versicolor (Nutt.) Epling
  • Scutellaria ovata subsp. virginiana Epling
  • Scutellaria ovata var. bracteata (Benth.) S.F.Blake
  • Scutellaria ovata var. calcarea (Epling) Gleason
  • Scutellaria ovata var. pilosior Leonard
  • Scutellaria ovata var. pseudoarguta (Epling) Core
  • Scutellaria ovata var. rugosa (A.Wood) Fernald
  • Scutellaria ovata var. versicolor (Nutt.) Fernald
  • Scutellaria ovata var. virginiana (Epling) Core
  • Scutellaria pilosa Hill
  • Scutellaria rugosa A.Wood
  • Scutellaria venosa Kearney
  • Scutellaria versicolor Nutt.
  • Scutellaria versicolor var. bracteata Benth.

and 2 more.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.