Subfamily

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

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

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

Description

Shrubs, subshrubs, and rhizomatous perennial herbs, strongly aromatic, with simple hairs; leaves sessile to short-petiolate, simple, toothed (usually finely) or entire; inflorescence of terminal and axillary cymes (occasionally reduced to solitary flowers), a terminal paniculiform or spiciform thyrse, or involucrate terminal and subterminal glomerules; calyx actinomorphic or zygomorphic, occasionally 2-lipped (3/2), not accrescent, cylindrical to tubular-campanulate, usually 10-13-nerved, 5-lobed, lobes deltoid to subulate, throat usually densely hairy; corolla lavender to white, weakly zygomorphic to 2-lipped (2/3), posterior lip usually emarginate, anterior 3 lobes occasionally forming a lip but more often fully separate above tube, tube straight to slightly downcurved; stamens 2 fertile (posterior pair reduced to staminodes or absent), exserted, filaments glabrous, thecae parallel to divaricate, separate at dehiscence; stigma-lobes equal to subequal; disc ± symmetrical; nutlets ellipsoid-trigonal, smooth, glabrous. 2n = 28.  About 15 species with a disjunct distribution, occurring from eastern North America to Panama and in southern South America (SE Brazil, NE Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay).

Distribution

Native to:

Synonyms

Mappia Heist. ex Fabr., Enum.: 58 (1759), nom. illeg.

Hedyosmos Mitch., Diss. Bot. Zool.: 33 (1769).

Publication

Cunila D. Royen ex L., Syst. Nat., ed. 10, 2: 1359 (1759), nom. cons.; Epling, Rep. Spec. Nov. Beih. 85: 138-142 (1936), rev.

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Image resource

© Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew