Subfamily

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

VII. 1. Tribe Elsholtzieae (Burnett) Sanders & Cantino (1984).

Description

Perennial herbs often with citrus-like odour; leaves rather large, opposite or subverticillate, coarsely toothed; inflorescence of 2-flowered verticillasters, raceme-like, ebracteolate; bracts usually small, persistent; calyx campanulate, lobes often subequal, lanceolate-subulate to deltoid, sometimes posterior lip shorter, median lobe rarely minute, lobes often slightly upcurved in fruit, calyx-tube obscurely (5-)10-nerved, throat hairy, often annulate; corolla white, yellowish or purplish, anterior lip with median lobe flat, entire to laciniate, corolla-tube infundibular to subcylindric, annulate or not, usually long-exserted; stamens 4, didynamous, or 2 (posterior pair reduced to staminodes), long-exserted or rarely included, thecae divergent to weakly divaricate, often slightly confluent at apex; nutlets 1(-2) by abortion, globose or subglobose, glabrous, smooth or faintly reticulate. 2n = 50, 52. About ten species of woodland and montane forest, four spp. in Eastern North America and about six species in China and Japan, with one endemic species in Taiwan.

Distribution

Native to:

36 China
38 Eastern Asia
72 Eastern Canada
74 North-Central U.S.A.
75 Northeastern U.S.A.
78 Southeastern U.S.A.

Synonyms

Hypogon Raf., Fl. Ludov.: 148 (1817).

Diallosteira Raf., Neogenyton: 2 (1825).

Pleuradenia Raf., Neogenyton: 2 (1825).

Keiskea Miq., Ann. Mus. Bot. Lugduno-Batavi 2: 105 (1865).

Micheliella Briq. in H.G.A.Engler & K.A.E.Prantl, Nat. Pflanzenfam. 4(3a): 325 (1897).

Publication

Collinsonia L., Sp. Pl. 1: 28 (1753); L., Gen. Pl. ed. 5: 16 (1754).

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Species found in RBG Kew living collections