Useful information about the plant family

Family: Verbenaceae J. St.-Hil. 1805

Description-internal

Herbs or woody plants, sometimes lianas. Habitus sometimes like Lamiaceae

Distribution

tropic and subtropic, few in moderate zones

Floral characters

Inflorecences cymose or racemose, very variable. flowers almost actinomorphic to distinctly zygomorphic. Calix 5-lobed or -toothed, persistent and sometimes enlarging in fruit. Corolla 4-5-lobed, somtimes bilabiate, with distinct tube. Stamens commonly 4 and didynamous, with the fifth present as a staminode or not, or 2 stamens and 2 staminodes, rarely 5 stamens. Ovary superior (1-)2-4(-8)-locular. style 1, terminal, stigma 1, entire or 2-lobed

Leaf characters

Leaves opposite or verticillate, mostly simple, rarely compund (Vitex)

Stipules

absent

Fruit characters

drupes or schizocarp into 2-4 1-seeded nutlets

Glands

present or absent

Hairs

present or absent

Latex

present or absent

Odor

etherical oils present

Uses

Tectona grandis, Citharexylum Petitia, Vitex und Premna - Tea Lippia citriodora - medicinal herbs: Verbena officinalis, ornamental plants. Lantana camara , Verbena, Petrea , Clerodendrum , Vitex, Caryopteris and Callicarpa

Chemical characters

Iridoids, Flavonoids, Pheolic glycosides, Terpenoids, Calciumoxalate cristals

Distribution maps

(online von http://www.mobot.org/MOBOT/research/APweb/ . Dort zitiert wie unter jedem Diagramm vermerkt):

Verbenaceae
map: from van Steenis & van Balgooy 1966; Hultén 1971; Meusel et al. 1978; Brummitt 2007. In Europe, Verbena officinalis may be native only from S. Europe eastwards; is Phyla nodiflora native to Australia?