Home
lip deciduous and usually with a transverse squama becoming an erect scutellum at maturity, the lower lip persistent; corolla tubular, bilabiate, generally long-exserted, red, orange, yellow, blue, violet, or white and one of the previous colors, the tube cylindrical and ? sigmoid, arcuate, or more sharply bent, the upper lip cup-shaped or galeate and ? joined obliquely to the lateral lobes of the lower lip, glabrous or pubescent within or without; stamens 4, paired, included in the upper lip, the pairs attached at different levels on the corolla tube, the filaments distinct, the connective not developed, the lower anthers with 1 functional theca; ovary 4-lobed, gynobase generally conspicuous and asymmetrical, variously de-scribed or functioning as a gynophore, the style long and slender, bifid near the tip, the upper style branch small or not apparent. Nutlets ca 3-4, attached at the base, + ovoid or spherical, the pericarp variously tubercular or verrucose, some-times provided with a band near the equator.
Herbs, sometimes woody below. Leaves opposite, petioled, rarely sessile. Flowers in terminal or upper axillary racemose inflorescence. Bracts minute or conspicuous and foliaceous. Calyx short, campanulate, 2-lipped, accrescent; calyx tube with a large caducous shield-or pouch-like appendage ('scutellum') above the upper lip; in fruit, at first the lips closed together, then the upper lip falling away together with the appendage. Corolla trumpet-shaped, usually sharply recurved from the base and erect upwards, not annulate within, 2-lipped; upper lip often boat-shaped, entire or notched; lower lip broad, 3-lobed. Stamens 4; lower pair longer, anthers often dimidiate or 1-celled; upper pair shorter, anthers 2-celled. Disk tubular, elongate. Ovary oblique, on a short gynophore; style 2-fid. Nutlets very minute, smooth, granular or hispid; seeds more or less transverse, with curved embryo.
Cal obscurely nerved, strongly bilabiate, with entire lips, bearing a prominent transverse appendage on or proximal to the upper lip; cor 2-lipped, the upper lip generally ± galeate, the lateral lobes of the lower lip somewhat separated from the broad central lobe and marginally partly connate with the upper lip; stamens 4, ascending under the upper lip, the anthers of the upper pair with 2 pollen sacs, those of the lower pair with only one; style gynobasic, its upper branch reduced or wanting; ours all perennial, mostly rhizomatous; fls blue or violet, seldom pink or white, solitary in the axils or in terminal or axillary racemes. 300, cosmop.
Usually herbs, sometimes small shrubs, not aromatic, sometimes rhizomatous. Lvs simple, entire to pinnatisect. Fls axillary, one to each opposite lf in upper axils or in terminal spikes or racemes. Bracts large and leaflike or reduced. Calyx 2-lipped; tube campanulate, not gibbous at base; upper lip with broad scale or scutellum which is eventually deciduous; lower lip persistent. Corolla tube usually > limb, often curved upwards, glabrous or ± hairy inside; limb 2-lipped. Stamens didynamous and parallel, lying beneath upper lip. Style gynobasic, its branches unequal. Nutlets subglobose or flattened, often granular or tuberculate.
Fls solitary or in spikes or racemes. Calyx with entire lips, upper with dorsal scale. Corolla-tube elongate, dilated towards 2-lipped limb; upper lip entire, lower 3-lobed. Anthers ciliolate; lower 1-celled, upper 2-celled. Nutlets small. Annual to perennial herbs or subshrubs. A widespread genus of some 250 spp., the N.Z. sp. endemic.
Herbs, mostly perennials, or half shrubs, erect or procumbent, rarely climbers, glabrous or pubescent. Leaves simple, opposite, petiolate or subsessile, pinnately-
