Subfamily

VII. Subfam. Nepetoideae (Dumort.) Luerss. (1882).

VII. 2. Tribe Mentheae Dumort. (1827).

VII. 2. B. Subtribe Menthinae (Dumort.) Endl. (1838).

Description

Perennial, rarely annual herbs and shrubs, aromatic, with simple or branched hairs; leaves petiolate to subsessile, simple, variously toothed or entire, margin sometimes revolute; inflorescence of axillary cymes, these sometimes reduced to solitary flowers or merging to form a terminal, paniculiform to spiciform, verticillastrate, or subcapitate thyrse; calyx actinomorphic to 2-lipped, not accrescent, usually cylindrical to tubular-campanulate, straight to sigmoid, sometimes gibbous, usually 13-(11-, 15-) nerved, 5-lobed, lobes often upcurved, posterior 3 often partially fused to form a lip, anterior 2 usually free above tube, throat hairy or not; corolla white to blue, lavender, red, or orange (rarely yellow), 2-lipped (2/3), posterior lip usually notched, tube straight or curved; stamens usually 4 (rarely the posterior pair reduced to staminodes), didynamous, included or exserted, filaments usually glabrous, thecae parallel to divaricate, separate at dehiscence; stigma-lobes equal or unequal; disc usually symmetrical; nutlets ellipsoid to ovoid, obloid, obovoid, or subglobose, often somewhat trigonal, smooth or minutely sculptured, glabrous or puberulent. 2n = 10-72 (most frequently 18 or 20). About 100 spp., mostly in the New World (both temperate and tropical) and temperate Eurasia, but a few in Africa, tropical Asia and Indomalaysia. As delimited here, Clinopodium includes most of the native New World species of Satureja sensu Epling and Játiva (1964, 1966), see Cantino and Wagstaff (1998).

Distribution

Native to:

10 Northern Europe
11 Middle Europe
12 Southwestern Europe
13 Southeastern Europe
14 Eastern Europe
20 Northern Africa
21 Macaronesia
22 West Tropical Africa
23 West-Central Tropical Africa
24 Northeast Tropical Africa
25 East Tropical Africa
26 South Tropical Africa
30 Siberia
31 Russian Far East
32 Middle Asia
33 Caucasus
34 Western Asia
35 Arabian Peninsula
36 China
38 Eastern Asia
40 Indian Subcontinent
41 Indo-China
42 Malesia
43 Papuasia
71 Western Canada
72 Eastern Canada
73 Northwestern U.S.A.
74 North-Central U.S.A.
75 Northeastern U.S.A.
76 Southwestern U.S.A.
77 South-Central U.S.A.
78 Southeastern U.S.A.
79 Mexico
80 Central America
81 Caribbean
82 Northern South America
83 Western South America
85 Southern South America

Introduced to:

50 Australia
51 New Zealand
84 Brazil

Synonyms

Acinos Mill., Gard. Dict. Abr. ed. 4 (1754).

Calamintha Mill., Gard. Dict. Abr. ed. 4 (1754).

Gardoquia Ruiz & Pav., Fl. Peruv. Prodr.: 86 (1794).

Rizoa Cav., Anales Ci. Nat. 3: 132 (1801).

Diodeilis Raf., Fl. Tellur. 3: 82 (1837).

Nostelis Raf., Sylva Tellur.: 76 (1838).

Rafinesquia Raf., New Fl. 3: 51 (1838).

Faucibarba Dulac, Fl. Hautes-Pyrénées: 402 (1867).

Oreosphacus Phil. in F.Leybold, Escurs. Pampas: 45 (1873).

Ceratominthe Briq., Bull. Herb. Boissier 4: 875 (1896).

Antonina Vved., Bot. Mater. Gerb. Inst. Bot. Akad. Nauk Uzbeksk. S.S.R. 16: 16 (1961).

× Calapodium Holub, Folia Geobot. Phytotax. 11: 82 (1976).

Bancroftia R.K.Porter, Gaceta Venez. 370: 3 (25 Feb. 1838), nom. illeg.

Publication

Clinopodium L., Sp. Pl. 2: 587 (1753); L., Gen. Pl. ed. 5: 256 (1754); Cantino & Wagstaff, Brittonia 50: 63-70 (1998); Harley & Granda Paucar, Kew Bull. 55: 917-927 (2000).

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Species found in RBG Kew living collections