Subfamily

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

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

VII. 2. C. Subtribe Nepetinae Coss. & Germ. (1845).

Description

Shrubs, subshrubs or perennial herbs, aromatic; leaves simple, strongly toothed; inflorescence thyrsoid, spike-like or interrupted, cymes long- to short-pedunculate or sessile; bracts leaf-like, oblong-elliptic to ą ovate; bracteoles inconspicuous; flowers sometimes resupinate; calyx tubular, campanulate, straight or curved, annulate within, actinomorphic or indistinctly 2-lipped, 5-lobed (3/2), lobes subequal, broadly ovate, becoming patent, accrescent in fruit, membranous-scarious, often pale green, rose or purplish, tube funnel-shaped, distinctly ribbed; corolla 2-lipped (2/3), blue-violet, posterior lip shortly 2-lobed, anterior lip with median lobe concave or flat, margins undulate or entire, tube elongate, straight, narrow, gradually widening above; stamens exserted or included, filaments parallel, thecae divergent at 180°; stigma-lobes slightly unequal; disc 4-lobed; nutlets ovoid or elliptic, smooth or tuberculate. 2n = 18. About ten species, Iran and Afghanistan. Some medicinal, ornamental.

Distribution

Native to:

32 Middle Asia
34 Western Asia
40 Indian Subcontinent

Synonyms

Sestinia Boiss., Diagn. Pl. Orient. 5: 40 (1844).

Publication

Hymenocrater Fisch. & C.A.Mey., Index Sem. Hort. Bot. Petropol. 2: 39 (1835); Budantsev, Bot. Zhurn. 77, 12: 118-128 (1992), rev.

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Image resource

Š Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew