Subfamily

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

VII. 3. Tribe Ocimeae Dumort. (1829).

VII. 3. D. Subtribe Ociminae (Dumort.) Schmidt in Martius (1858).

Subtribe Moschominae Endlicher (1838).

Description

Shrubs or herbs, often geoxylic, sometimes annual, aromatic or not; leaves simple, opposite, rarely ternate or quadrate; inflorescence thyrsoid with cymes sessile, usually 3-, more rarely 1-flowered; bracts persistent, not coloured, often inconspicuous; calyx shortly tubular, straight or curving upwards, strongly 2-lipped, 5-lobed (1/4), lobes unequal, posterior rounded, decurrent, curving upwards, lateral teeth deltoid, usually with a prominent shoulder, anterior lobes subulate, throat open, glabrous; corolla strongly 2-lipped, 5-lobed (4/1), white, pink or bluish, rarely red, posterior lip ascending, 4-lobed with median lobes exceeding lateral lobes, anterior lip horizontal, concave, corolla-tube straight or slightly curved, parallel-sided, dilating towards throat, usually glabrous, rarely annulate or with pubescent swellings at base of posterior stamens; stamens 4 usually held over lower lip, rarely much exserted, posterior pair usually attached above midpoint of corolla-tube, very rarely at base, usually glabrous, inappendiculate, anterior pair attached at corolla throat; style usually capitate-clavate; stigma-lobes equal, rounded, rarely parallel-sided, connivent; disc 4-lobed with anterior lobe larger; nutlets ą ovoid, glabrous, mucilaginous or not. 2n = 22-28, 48. Around forty species in tropical and southern Africa, Madagascar and tropical or subtropical Asia, in grassland, woodland, or forest margins.

Distribution

Native to:

20 Northern Africa
22 West Tropical Africa
23 West-Central Tropical Africa
24 Northeast Tropical Africa
25 East Tropical Africa
26 South Tropical Africa
27 Southern Africa
29 Western Indian Ocean
35 Arabian Peninsula
36 China
38 Eastern Asia
40 Indian Subcontinent
41 Indo-China
42 Malesia
43 Papuasia
50 Australia
60 Southwestern Pacific

Synonyms

Clerodendranthus Kudô, Mem. Fac. Sci. Taihoku Imp. Univ. 2: 117 (1929).

Publication

Syncolostemon E. Mey. ex Benth. in E.Mey, Comm. Pl. Afr. Austr.: 230 (1837); Codd, Bothalia 12: 21-27 (1976), rev.; Paton, Kew Bull. 53: 483-485 (1998).

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Image resource

Š Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew