Global overview of Lamiaceae and related families

The World Checklist of Lamiaceae and Verbenaceae covers 7550 species of Lamiaceae and 1005 species of Verbenaceae

Search page of the checklist of Lamiaceae and Verbenaceae (www.kew.org/wcsp/lamiaceae)

The broad-based collections and expertise at Kew, coupled with a productive network of collaboration enables large scale studies of the Lamiaceae and also broader studies involving related families in the Lamiales. A team of 13 authors, including 6 from Kew contributed to the account of Lamiaceae in Kubitzki's Families and Genera of Vascular Plants, coordinated and edited by Ray Harley. Sandy Atkins provided an account of the Verbenaceae, Ray Harley and Peter Green provided accounts of the Nesogenaceae and Oleaceae respectively. These works will provide the basis for systematic studies of these families for many years to come.

The network of collaborators built during this phase of the project has been used to help review a species level global checklist of Lamiaceae.  The World Checklist of Lamiaceae and Verbenaceae, covering 7,550 species of Lamiaceae and 1005 Verbenaceae,  provides information on accepted scientific names, synonyms and botanical country (TDWG level 3) distributions. The checklist was originally compiled by Rafael Govaerts and is primarily literature-based. Family and generic delimitation has been adjusted to reflect the circumscriptions followed in Harley et al. (2004, in Kadereit, J.W. (ed) The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants vol. 7: 167-275). 

The list was made accessible via RBG Kew’s website at the end of January 2006 and is now maintained as part of the World Checklist of Selected Plant Families (www.kew.org/wcsp).

Lamiaceae accounts in several large projects such Kew’s African Floras, Flora Malesiana, Flora Mesoamericana and Lista do Brasil will be completed in the next three year period. We plan to incorporate data from these projects into the Lamiaceae Checklist and to seek review and expert input for areas not covered by recent monographs and Floras.