Home Flora of Panama (WFO)
Name Search
Markup OCR Documents
Vitex L. Search in The Plant ListSearch in IPNISearch in Australian Plant Name IndexSearch in Index Nominum Genericorum (ING)Search in NYBG Virtual HerbariumSearch in JSTOR Plant ScienceSearch in SEINetSearch in African Plants Database at Geneva Botanical GardenAfrican Plants, Senckenberg Photo GallerySearch in Flora do Brasil 2020Search in Reflora - Virtual HerbariumSearch in Living Collections Decrease font Increase font Restore font
 

Project Name Data (Last Modified On 5/13/2013)
 

Flora Data (Last Modified On 5/13/2013)
Genus Vitex L.
PlaceOfPublication Sp. PI. 635. 1753
Synonym Mailelou Rheede ex Adans., Fam. PI. 2: 12, 200. 1763. Limia Vand., Fl. Lusit. 42, pl. 3, fig. 21. 1788. Nephrandra Willd. in Cothen., Disp. Veg. 8. 1790. Allasia Lour., FM. Cochinch., ed. 1. 84. 1790. Tripinna Lour., Fl. Cochinch. ed. 1. 476. 1790. Chrysomallum Thou., Gen. Nov. Madag. 8. 1806. Tripinnaria Pers., Syn. PI. 2: 173. 1806. Pyrostoma G. F. W. Mey., Prim. Fl. Esseq. 219. 1818. Wallrothia Roth, Nov. PI. Sp. 317. 1821. Ephialis Banks & Soland. ex A. Cunn., Ann. Nat. Hist., Ser. 1. 1: 461. 1838. Psilogyne A. DC., Biblioth. Universelle Geneve 17: 132. 1838. Casarettoa Walp., Repert. 4: 91. 1844. Macrostegia Nees in DC., Prodr. 11: 218. 1847. Agnus-castus Carr., Rev. Hort. 42: 415. 1871. Varengevillea Baill., Hist. PI. 11: 116, in part-flowers only. 1892.
Description Trees or shrubs, rarely woody vines, glabrous, tomentose or villous. Leaves decussate-opposite or ternate, palmately 3-7 foliolate, rarely 1-foliolate, the leaflets chartaceous or membranous, sometimes coriaceous, mostly petiolulate, entire or dentate, rarely incised or lobed. Inflorescences cymose, the cymes short and dense or loosely divaricate, sessile or pedunculate in the leaf-axils or aggregated in ter- minal racemiform, thyrsoid or laxly diffuse panicles, more rarely contracted into heads, occasionally few- or 1-flowered, rarely cauliflorous; flowers perfect, more or less zygomorphic; bractlets and prophylls usually very small, mostly linear, sometimes longer than the calyx. Flowers with the calyx campanulate, cyathiform, or rarely tubular-infundibular, 5-dentate, or 5-fid, rarely 3-fid or 6-lobed, the teeth mostly slightly unequal; corolla white, blue, violet or yellowish, long-tubular,
Habit Trees or shrubs, rarely woody vines
Description cylindric, or hypocrateriform, zygomorphic, the tube short or rarely elongate, cylindric, straight or slightly incurved, sometimes slightly ampliate apove, the limb oblique, spreading, more or less bilabiate, the upper lip often bifid, the lower lip trifid, the two posterior lobes exterior and usually shorter, the lateral lobes larger, the anterior lobe largest, entire or emarginate, the upper lip erect, arched, or resupinate; stamens 4, didynamous, inserted in the corolla-tube, often exserted, the anthers 2-celled, the thecae distinct, parallel to divergent or arcuate, attached near the apex, dehiscing by longitudinal slits; pistil single, compound, bicarpellate, the style terminal, filiform, shortly bifid apically, the branches acute, the ovary at first imperfectly 2-celled, during anthesis usually 4-celled, the cells 1-ovulate; ovules attached laterally at or above the middle of the cell. Fruit drupaceous, fleshy, the endocarp hard, often horny, sometimes incrassate in relation to the cells, 4-celled; seeds obovate or oblong, erect, without endosperm; fruiting-calyx often accrescent, usually patelliform or very shallowly cupuliform, rarely partly enclosing the fruit.
Distribution A complex genus of about 380 specific and infraspecific entities, mostly of the tropics and subtropics of both hemispheres, a few also found in temperate Europe and Asia. Species are widely cultivated and naturalized.
Note A few fossil forms are known from Europe and Africa. The African genus Chrysomallum, listed in the synonymy above, may be worthy as a separate genus.
Key a. Inflorescence paniculate or thyrsoid. b. Leaves 3-foliolate, glabrous or glabrate beneath, smooth above; introduced ...... 1. V. parviflora bb. Leaves 3-5 foliolate, densely tomentose beneath, mostly subbullate-rugose above, native ...... 2. V. masoniana aa. Inflorescence cymose. c. Leaves 3-foliolate. d. Lateral leaflets usually much smaller than the central one ...... 3. V. cooperi dd. Lateral leaflets usually not much smaller than the central one ...... 4. V. floridula cc. Leaves 3-7 foliolate. e. Leaflets densely and softly short-pubescent or velutinous-tomentellous beneath ...... 5. V. flavens ee. Leaflets becoming sparsely short-pubescent or puberulent beneath when mature ...... 6. V. cymosa
 
 
© 2024 Missouri Botanical Garden - 4344 Shaw Boulevard - Saint Louis, Missouri 63110