the stem

the flower stem

It's gotta be a mint family ...

thanks for the reply @lazygardens that's my thought too.. but don't know which species. it has a smell when brush the leaves. don't know how to describe the smell. but not really like the smell.

Could it be Nepeta? I really don't like the smell of catmint leaves. Yours looks more like Nepeta cataria (catnip).

searched nepeta cataria, looks like it but none of the cat want to play with it. i also have catnip plant which smell nice (lemony scent if i'm not mistaken). thanks for the answer.

The catnip-like plant with the lemony smell could well be lemon balm, which is a nice herb but a seriously aggressive spreader.

The OP is in Indonesia so it could be something totally unfamiliar to most of us. It is definitely not lemon balm and the flower arrangement doesn't look much like Nepeta.

Thanks floral for pointing out the OP's location. I'll try to remember to check people's profiles if they don't have a location next to their name.

Just to clarify, I wasn't suggesting that the plant in the picture is lemon balm. The OP said he/she has a second plant that looks like the pic but smells like lemon. I suspect it's actually a different plant, so ventured a guess of something tolerably similar.

But I know nothing of Indonesian plants, so no more guesses from me.

It also could be a hyssop. I'm growing an Anise Hyssop that looks very much like that, great sweet licorice flavor for tea.

Agastache?

i have catnip, lemon balm, licorice mint(hyssop but already died) they all smell different from this one. for me, they have strong smell when brush with finger but this one has a mind smell. maybe the whole plant will help identify it?

found one with small purple flower

OK - how about Solenostemon monostachys aka Plectranthus monostachys?

Here is a link that might be useful: Solenostemon monostachys

I second Plectranthus Monostachyus... It's in the mint & deadnettle family which accounts for the plant's aroma --- which some people definitely do not like. The plant has great medicinal value, though.

Thanks for answering. I don't think it's a plectranthus monostachyus. Diffrent flower arrangement. But i searched "dead nettle" and some of the image has the same characteristic with this one. Just mine have a longer flower stalk. Could it be dead nettle?

Many, many plants are called 'dead nettle'. It's certainly not red or white dead nettle. Which one did you think it might be?

Could it be lamium garganicum?

No, it's not L garganicum. Apart from looking very different I doubt a native of the mountains of S Europe would be growing in a pot in Indonesia.

Oh, really strange plant. People here called it "buak chau" used by chinese people here to ward off misfortune but they don't know the scientific name or other name. Difficult to find information using that name. Thanks for the answer anyway :-)
Maybe it always be an unknown plant haha

It couldn't hurt to ask on GW's Asian Vegetables forum

There's also an Asian Gardening forum, but it's very slow.

Is that in hokkien or Cantonese? I can look up the characters...
It looks like a perilla cultivar or another perilla, not p. frutescens.

-Ming

This post was edited by mingtea on Thu, Jul 17, 14 at 23:30

@missingtheobvious oh, i'll try to ask it there... Thanks for the information

@mingtea it's in hokkian. Perilla is a kind of vegetables doesn't it? I'll try to search perilla then. Thanks for the information

I think it is perilla also usually red leaves but sometimes green

Well I guess all the culinary perillas are lumped together in P. frutescens so that gets my vote. The Cantonese word for perilla is "bak sou" (ç½èÂÂ) so I think that matches what you've quoted (doesn't make sense in hokkien, it would be something like "peh sou"). If you copy and Google the Chinese characters you might see a similar plant. BTW, I'm from Malaysia ;)

-Ming

@mingtea : GOT IT!! thanks... anisomeles indica or indian catmint (never knew it's the same one with catnip(?)) or éÂÂÃ¥ÂÂè (jin jian cao) in chinese... for years looking for this plant's name. now revealed haha.. thanks again :-) and nice to meet you too. i'm from indonesia.

@all: thanks for all your answers. it helps alot :-)

Wow, that goes to show the fallacy of common names, even in other languages :) the canto or hokk translation of that is nowhere near what the locals are calling it, unless they have the plants mixed up? In mandarin/canto/hokkien the last character, "cao/co/chau" is a general term used to describe grasses, weeds. Glad you found it!

-Ming