Subfamily

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

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

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

Description

Subshrubs or annual or perennial herbs, aromatic, sometimes gynodioecious; leaves simple; inflorescences thyrsoid, cymes lax to congested, pedunculate or sessile, axillary, distant, or crowded into spike-like or ovoid heads; bracts leaf-like or reduced, sometimes longer than calyx; bracteoles inconspicuous; calyx tubular to campanulate, actinomorphic to strongly 2-lipped, 5-lobed (3/2), or rarely with lips entire, lobes subequal to unequal, throat straight to strongly oblique; corolla 2-lipped, 5-lobed (2/3), blue, violet, pink, yellow or white, posterior lip straight or curved, anterior lip with median lobe concave or ą flat, undulate or entire, tube included in or exserted from calyx, straight or curved, gradually or ą abruptly dilating upwards; stamens of hermaphrodite flowers 4, rarely 2 with anterior pair absent, usually shorter than corolla, filaments parallel, thecae divergent at 180° (stamens of male-sterile flowers rudimentary); stigma-lobes subequal; disc 4-lobed; nutlets ellipsoid to obovoid, rounded to acuminate, smooth to tuberculate, glabrous or hairy at apex, mucilaginous or not. 2n = 14, 16, 18, 30, 32, 34, 36, 54. Over 200 species. Mainly in mountains, semi-deserts and steppes of Eurasia, extending into North Africa. Some cultivated for medicinal use or ornament. For a synopsis of infrageneric classification, see Budantsev (1993).

Distribution

Native to:

10 Northern Europe
11 Middle Europe
12 Southwestern Europe
13 Southeastern Europe
14 Eastern Europe
20 Northern Africa
21 Macaronesia
24 Northeast Tropical Africa
25 East Tropical Africa
30 Siberia
32 Middle Asia
33 Caucasus
34 Western Asia
35 Arabian Peninsula
36 China
37 Mongolia
38 Eastern Asia
40 Indian Subcontinent

Introduced to:

51 New Zealand
70 Subarctic America
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.
85 Southern South America

Doubtfully present in:

31 Russian Far East

Synonyms

Cataria Adans., Fam. Pl. 2: 192 (1763).

Saccilabium Rottb., Acta Lit. Univ. Hafn. 1: 294 (1778).

Saussuria Moench, Methodus: 388 (1794).

Oxynepeta Bunge, Mém. Acad. Imp. Sci. Saint Pétersbourg, Sér. 7, 21(1): 58 (1878).

Schizonepeta (Benth.) Briq. in H.G.A.Engler & K.A.E.Prantl, Nat. Pflanzenfam. 4(3a): 235 (1896).

Afridia Duthie, J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 11: 696 (1898).

Pitardia Batt. ex Pit., Contr. Fl. Maroc: 31 (1918).

Kudrjaschevia Pojark (1953).

Publication

Nepeta L., Sp. Pl. 2: 570 (1753); Budantsev, Bot. Zhurn. 78,1: 91-105 (1993), rev.

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Species found in RBG Kew living collections

1998-3905 Nepeta  JAMZ  P JOD SEED
1999-160 Nepeta  JAMZ   JOD SEED
1998-1973 Nepeta 'Porzellan'  CAGA   135 01
2003-40 Nepeta 'Six Hills Giant'  NHNU   135 02
1969-32800 Nepeta X faassenii (Bergmans) ex Stearn    F 751 HPG-C   : 751 HPG-E   : 751 HPG-F
1991-294 Nepeta X faassenii (Bergmans) ex Stearn  SMGL   135 01
2001-1559 Nepeta X faassenii (Bergmans) ex Stearn 'Six Hills Giant'     133 03   : 133 04
2007-1318 Nepeta cataria 'Citriodora'  ETTT   111 12
1994-1793 Nepeta cataria L.  CHIS   111 11   : 111 SEED
1998-1190 Nepeta crispa Willd. N JAMZ  F JOD SEED
1969-19371 Nepeta faassenii x grandiflora     154 0713
1998-1191 Nepeta glomerulosa Boiss. N JAMZ  F 157 01   : ALP_N HH9 1g2b : ALP_N HH FRAME4 1g2b
1969-19312 Nepeta macrantha     157 13
1998-1184 Nepeta menthoides Boiss.& Buhse N JAMZ  F JOD SEED
1998-3053 Nepeta menthoides Boiss.& Buhse N JAMZ  F 157 01   : ALP_N HH9 1g2b
1998-2279 Nepeta mussini Spreng.ex Henckel  WATR   484
1998-2278 Nepeta mussini Spreng.ex Henckel  WATR   333
1969-19316 Nepeta nuda var. alba     157 22
1967-22324 Nepeta phyllochlamys P.H.Davis N ALCW 2093 F ALP_H 04   : ALP_N AWF 1g1b
1969-19313 Nepeta racemosa Lam.    F 154 0603   : 154 0706
1998-1187 Nepeta saccharata Bunge N JAMZ  F JOD T3
1983-3408 Nepeta sibirica  SCHP   135 01
1978-4753 Nepeta spruneri Boiss. N COKX 4 F 157 14
1998-1186 Nepeta straussii Hausskn.& Bornm. N JAMZ  F JOD T3
1998-3045 Nepeta straussii Hausskn.& Bornm. N JAMZ  F 154 RG

Image resource

Š Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew