The many species are known as water horehound,[3] gypsywort, and bugleweed and are native to Europe, Asia, Australia, and North America.

[4] The genus includes only perennial species; they spread by both seeds and stems rooting as they grow along the ground.

Lycopus antiquus has possibly been applied to more than one extinct species which were widely distributed in Europe and Siberia from the Miocene to the Pliocene.

[6] [2] The plant's juice yields black dye, supposedly used by the Roma in Europe to tan their skin to mimic Egyptians, hence the common name of Gypsywort for Lycopus europaeus.

Apothecaries and herbalists used the leaves, stems, and flowers for their astringent and sedative qualities as well as for anxiety, tuberculosis, and palpitations.