|
(Last Modified On 5/10/2013)
|
|
|
|
(Last Modified On 5/10/2013)
|
|
Family
|
VERBENACEAE
|
|
Contributor
|
HAROLD N. MOLDENKE
|
|
Description
|
Herbs, shrubs, woody vines, or trees; no pneumatophores present; branches, branchlets, and twigs mostly tetragonal, not prominently nodose or articulate, often annulate. Leaves mostly decussate-opposite, sometimes whorled, alternate, or scattered, thick- or thin-textured, deciduous, exstipulate, sessile or petiolate, simple or sometimes palmately- (rarely pinnately-) compound or 1-foliolate, the blades entire or variously dentate, incised, or cleft. Inflorescences axillary or terminal, determinate and centrifugal (cymose) or indeterminate and centripetal (racemose), in the form of cymes, racemes, spikes, panicles, thyrsi, heads, or false-umbels, sometimes involucrate, the axillary inflorescences mostly solitary. Flowers sessile or pedicellate, perfect or imperfect, hypogynous, sometimes hetero- stylous or polygamous, large or small, mostly irregular, not individually involu- crate; calyx gamosepalous, campanulate, tubular, or salverform, persistent, usually accrescent, 4(2, 5, or 7)-lobed or toothed or sometimes subentire; corolla regular or irregular, gamopetalous, funnel- or salverform, usually with a well-developed tube, the limb 4, 5(7-many)-parted, often somewhat 2-lipped; stamens mostly 4 and didynamous or reduced by abortion to 2, sometimes 4 or 5 and equal, inserted on the corolla-tube; staminodes often present; gynoecium 2(4-5)-carpellate, syncarpous, 1 carpel sometimes aborted, the ovary mostly compound, sessile, or sometimes subtended by a disc, mostly somewhat 4-lobed, at first 2-5-loculed, usually soon becoming 4-10-loculed through formation of false partitions, never with a free central placenta or columella, the axile placenta-lobes each bearing 1 anatrbpous and basal or hemianatropous and lateral ovule, so that locules not subsequently divided by partitions each contain 1 ovule. Fruit usually a dry schizocarp, or drupaceous with a thick and dry or fleshy exocarp and more or less hard endocarp, 2-4-loculed and indehiscent when mature or dehiscent into 2(-4- 10), 1- or 2-loculed pyrenes; seeds plainly testate, the embryo never viviparous, the radicle short and inferior, glabrous, the cotyledons 2, flat, more or less thickened, parallel.
|
|
Habit
|
Herbs, shrubs, woody vines, or trees
|
|
Distribution
|
A widely distributed and complex family of about 76 genera and 3435 specific and subspecific taxa, found in all portions of the world except the driest and hottest parts of the Sahara Desert and in the Arctic and Antarctic regions, most abundant in the tropics. The family is closely related to the Lamiaceae from which it is distinguished with difficulty. Numerous ornamental, medicinal, and otherwise economic forms are included in the family.
|
|
Key
|
a. Inflorescence capitate, spicate or racemiform, indeterminate and centripetal. b. Inflorescence spicate, often subcapitate in anthesis and elongating in fruit; flowers sessile or subsessile. c. Fruit with 4 1-seeded locules becoming dry schizocarps ...... 1. Verbena cc. Fruit with 2, 1- or 2-seeded pyrenes (or by abortion only 1). d. Pyrenes 1-loculed and 1-seeded, fruit separating or not. e. Perfect stamens 4. f. Calyx truncate or shallowly toothed; corolla 4-5-lobed; fruit drupa- ceous, usually with a fleshy and juicy exocarp and hard endocarp, either 2-loculed or separating into 2, 1-loculed pyrenes ...... 2. Lantana ff. Calyx 2-4-cleft or conspicuously toothed; corolla 4-lobed; fruit dry, with a hard and thin or papery exocarp, separating into 2, 1-loculed pyrenes. g. Mostly herbaceous, with trailing or ascending stems, rooting at the nodes, sometimes somewhat woody; spikes greatly elongating in fruit; bractlets cuneate-obovate, not 4-ranked; trichomes malpig- hiaceous (medifixed) ...... 3. Phyla gg. Erect bushes, subshrubs, shrubs, or trees; spikes not usually elongat- ing in fruit; branchlets mostly ovate or lanceolate; often more or less 4-ranked; trichomes not malpighiaceous ....... 4. Lippia ee. Perfect stamens 2, with a posterior pair of staminodes -5. Stachytarpheta dd. Pyrenes 2-loculed and 2-seeded (or by abortion 1-loculed and 1-seeded), fruit not separating. h. Woody bushes or shrubs; fruit usually flesIy and juicy; flowers in dense spikes or heads ...... 2. Lantana hh. Herbs; fruit dry; flowers in loose spikes or racemes ...... 6. Priva bb. Inflorescence racemiform and elongate, or reduced and axillary; flowers plainly pedicellate. i. Woody vines; fruit with 2-loculed and 1-seeded pyrenes; mature fruiting-calyx usually conspicuously 5-winged, wings greatly enlarged, stiff, dry, net-veined, and often colored; epicalyx present ...... 7. Petrea ii. Trees or shrubs; fruit with 2 or 4, 2-loculed and 2-seeded pyrenes, or less by abortion; mature fruiting-calyx not winged; no epicalyx present. j. Drupes with 4 pyrenes, each 2-loculed and 2-seeded; calyx mostly obvolute and rostrate (enveloping the fruit) after anthesis ...... 8. Duranta jj. Drupes with 2 pyrenes, each 2-loculed and 2-seeded (or 1-seeded by abor- tion); calyx not obvolute nor rostrate after anthesis ...... 9. Citharexylum aa, Inflorescence cymose, determinate and centrifugal, the cymes often congested into panicles, false umbels, umbelloid panicles, thyrsi, or heads, when axillary sometimes reduced to 1 flower. k. Flowers essentially regular; stamens 4-6, equal. 1. Drupes normally with 4 or 5, 1-loculed and 1-seeded pyrenes; fruiting-calyx not inflated. m. Stigma deeply bifid with long awl-shaped branches; flowers diclinous; fruit- ing-calyx enlarged and indurated; stamens inserted at or above the middle of the corolla-tube; ovary mostly glabrous ...... 10. Aegiphila mm. Stigma depressed-capitate or peltate; flowers mostly polygamous; fruiting- calyx usually unchanged and patelliform; stamens inserted at or near the base of the corolla-tube; ovary usually more or less pubescent ...... 11. Callicalva 11. Drupes with 1, 4-loculed pyrene; fruiting-calyx conspicuously inflated ...... 12. Tectona kk. Flowers (especially the corolla) mpre or less irregular; stamens 4, didynamous. n. Drupes with 1, 4-loculed pyrene. o. Fertile stamens 2; filiform staminodes present; leaves simple ...... 13. Cornutia oo. Fertile stamens 4; usually no staminode present; leaves palmately compound, rarely 1-foliolate -14. Vitex nn. Drupes with 4 (or less through abortion), 1-loculed pyrenes ...... 15. Clerodendrum
|
|
Tag
|
|
|
|
Project Name
|
|
Tag
|
|
|
|