Scutellaria pontica earns its common name twice over: the calyx at each flower's base mimics a small medieval helmet, and the fruiting bodies that follow resemble tiny dishes, which is what the genus name — drawn from the Latin scutella — quietly announces. Native to Turkey and among the smallest members of the genus, it grows barely six to ten inches high, pressing itself against rocky ground in a dense mat of rounded, silver-gray leaves that stay attractive long after the lavender-purple flower spikes have finished in midsummer.

Unlike most of its mint-family relatives, Turkish skullcap carries no discernible scent. It is at its best in full sun where the flowering stems stay compact and upright; too much shade and those stems begin to flop. Plant it at the front of a rock garden, along the crest of a dry-stone wall, or on a sunny slope where something low and weed-suppressing is needed. Zones 5 to 9, with bees as its most reliable visitors.