Subfamily

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

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

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

Description

Annual or perennial herbs or subshrubs, strongly aromatic; leaves entire or toothed; inflorescence of few- to many-flowered, pedunculate to subsessile cymes, or flowers rarely solitary, in axils of bracts, upper cymes often congested in a terminal spiciform thyrse; bracts often leaf-like; bracteoles inconspicuous; flowers sometimes cleistogamous; calyx ± actinomorphic, subequally 5-lobed, or 2-lipped (3/2) with lobes unequal, posterior somewhat connate, deltoid to subulate, anterior lobes usually longer, tube 13-nerved, cylindrical to infundibular, often gibbous at base, throat densely hairy within; corolla white, lilac, pink or orange-red, 2-lipped (2/3), posterior lip sometimes subentire, concave to flat, erect or spreading, median anterior lobe usually larger, often emarginate, tube short to elongate, widening upwards, annulate or not within; stamens 2, posterior pair staminodal, anterior pair ascending under posterior corolla lip, included to exserted, thecae ± parallel to widely divaricate, distinct, connective well-developed; stigma-lobes unequal, ± subulate, posterior very small; disc symmetrical; nutlets ovoid to oblong, usually 1.5 mm long or less, areolate to foveate, sometimes glaucous, often mucilaginous. 2n = 34, 36, 44, 72, 76, 144.  About 42 species, from Canada southwards to Mexico, Central and Southern S America, from Peru and Bolivia to S Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina.  Open montane or submontane, sometimes xeric habitats. Irving (1980) recognizes four subgenera, based mainly on habit and reproductive characters.

Distribution

Native to:

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
83 Western South America
84 Brazil
85 Southern South America

Synonyms

Pseudocunila Brade, Rodriguésia 7(16): 27 (1944).

Publication

Hedeoma Pers., Syn. Pl. 131 (1807); Irving, Sida 8(3): 218-295 (1980), rev.

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Image resource

© Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew