Subfamily

III. Subfam. Ajugoideae Kostel. (1834).

Subfam. Teucrioideae (Dumort.) Caruel (1884).

Description

Tall shrubs, often scrambling or spreading; leaves opposite, petiolate, ovate to lanceolate, variously toothed or rarely subentire; inflorescence of axillary cymes or axillary or terminal paniculiform thyrses; calyx ±actinomorphic, accrescent or not, 5-6 lobed; corolla white to deep red, purple, or blue, 5-lobed (4/1), 4 posterior lobes ±similar, anterior lobe larger, corolla in bud ±asymmetrical; stamens 4, equal or didynamous, exserted, arched, thecae divergent to divaricate, confluent at dehiscence; pollen with supratectal verrucae, columellae sparingly branched; ovary unlobed; stigma-lobes equal; disc poorly developed; fruit a dry or slightly fleshy schizocarp, sometimes requiring pressure to split into nutlets, nutlets boat-shaped (arcuate in cross-section), smooth or slightly ridged, glabrous or pubescent, attachment scar as long as nutlet; endosperm absent.  2n = 40, 60.  Three species, S China, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Thailand, Myanmar, and Pakistan.

Distribution

Native to:

36 China
38 Eastern Asia
40 Indian Subcontinent
41 Indo-China

Introduced to:

25 East Tropical Africa
26 South Tropical Africa
27 Southern Africa

Publication

Pseudocaryopteris P. D. Cantino, Syst. Bot. 23: 380 (1999).

Caryopteris sect. Pseudocaryopteris Briq. (1895).

Image resource

© Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

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