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Published In: Species Plantarum 1: 21. 1753. (1 May 1753) (Sp. Pl.) Name publication detailView in BotanicusView in Biodiversity Heritage Library
 

Project Name Data (Last Modified On 8/25/2017)
Acceptance : Accepted
 

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14. Lycopus L. (bugleweed) (Henderson, 1962)

Plants perennial herbs, with rhizomes, often with stolons, sometimes producing small tubers. Stems erect or ascending, occasionally reclining on surrounding vegetation, bluntly or sharply 4-angled (except sometimes in swollen, spongy, submerged-aquatic stems), unbranched or branched, variously glabrous to densely hairy. Leaves opposite, sessile or short-petiolate (the petioles occasionally relatively long in L. rubellus), the petioles then winged most of their length, with a pungent, disagreeable odor when bruised or crushed. Leaf blades variously shaped, unlobed to pinnately deeply several-lobed, the margins otherwise entire or sharply toothed, the surfaces glabrous or hairy, also with usually conspicuous sessile glands. Inflorescences axillary, dense clusters of numerous flowers per node, these sessile or nearly so. Bractlets shorter than to about as long as the calyces, linear to lanceolate, tapered to sharply pointed but not spinescent tips. Calyces not or only slightly zygomorphic, lacking a lateral projection, symmetric at the base, more or less cylindric to broadly bell-shaped, the tube with 4 or 5 fine main nerves (1 per lobe), in some species with a pair of fainter lateral nerves, glabrous in the mouth, the lobes much shorter than to about as long as the tube, ascending or spreading, broadly to narrowly triangular, rounded to more commonly angled or tapered to bluntly or sharply pointed but not spinescent tips, glabrous or finely short-hairy on the outer surface and along the lobe margins, sometimes also glandular, not becoming enlarged or papery at fruiting. Corollas 2.5–5.0 mm long, actinomorphic or nearly so (not 2-lipped), white, sometimes with faint to prominent, darker purple spots on some of the lobes, the outer surface glabrous or more commonly moderately to densely glandular, the tube funnelform, 4 or 5 lobes more or less similar (if 4-lobed then the upper lobe slightly larger than the others), shorter than the tube, the throat closed with a dense beard of multicellular hairs. Stamens 2, not or only slightly exserted, the anthers minute, the connective short, the pollen sacs 2, spreading, white, yellow, or dark purple. Ovary deeply lobed, the style appearing more or less basal from a deep apical notch. Style not or only slightly exserted, with 2, short, equal branches at the tip. Fruits dry schizocarps, separating into usually 4 nutlets, these 1.0–2.3 mm long, more or less tetrahedral, broadly rounded to truncate at the tip, unequally triangular in cross-section, with a corky winglike structure oriented vertically along the lateral margins and across the apex, the surface yellowish brown to reddish brown or brown (the corky band often somewhat lighter), relatively smooth (sometimes minutely roughened toward the tip), usually glandular. Fourteen to 16 species, North America, Europe, Asia; disjunct in Australia, Tasmania.

Steyermark (1963) noted that the tubers produced by most species of Lycopus are eaten by muskrats.

Species of Lycopus superficially resemble Spermacoce glabra Michx. (Buttonweed) in the Rubiaceae, which also has dense axillary clusters of small white flowers. Spermacoce glabra differs in its ovary position (inferior vs. superior); fruit type (unlobed and achenelike vs. nutlets), deeply lobed, unnerved calyces (vs. shallowly lobed or to about the midpoint and strongly nerved), and 4 (vs. 2) stamens, among other characters.

 
 
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