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Trees, shrubs or occasionally lianas, the stems mostly 4-angled, glabrous to densely hairy. Leaves opposite or in whorls of 3, (1–)3–7-foliolate, mostly petiolate; leaflets entire, toothed or lobed, often glandular. Cymes mostly dichasial, short and dense to open and spreading, sessile or pedunculate, the bracts often well developed; cymes sometimes aggregated into thyrsoid or lax panicles. Calyx campanulate to tubular, (3–)5(–6)-lobed or toothed or nearly truncate. Corolla white and/or coloured, mostly shades of blue, lilac or mauve, ± zygomorphic; tube shortly cylindrical to long-tubular or ± funnel-shaped; limb spreading, ± 2-lipped, the upper lip 2-fid, the lower 3-fid. Stamens 4, didynamous, inserted in the tube, mostly exserted. Ovary at first ± 2-locular, later usually 4-locular, with single ovule in each locule; style terminal, filiform, shortly bifid. Drupes fleshy with hard 4-celled endocarp; fruiting calyx usually accrescent, plate-like or cupular. Seeds without endosperm.
Trees or shrubs, rarely woody vines, glabrous, tomentose or villous. Leaves decussate-opposite or ternate, palmately 3-7 foliolate, rarely 1-foliolate, the leaflets chartaceous or membranous, sometimes coriaceous, mostly petiolulate, entire or dentate, rarely incised or lobed. Inflorescences cymose, the cymes short and dense or loosely divaricate, sessile or pedunculate in the leaf-axils or aggregated in ter-minal racemiform, thyrsoid or laxly diffuse panicles, more rarely contracted into heads, occasionally few-or 1-flowered, rarely cauliflorous; flowers perfect, more or less zygomorphic; bractlets and prophylls usually very small, mostly linear, sometimes longer than the calyx. Flowers with the calyx campanulate, cyathiform, or rarely tubular-infundibular, 5-dentate, or 5-fid, rarely 3-fid or 6-lobed, the teeth mostly slightly unequal; corolla white, blue, violet or yellowish, long-tubular,
Fls perfect; cal 5-toothed; cor salverform, irregular, white to blue or yellowish, with short, often slightly incurved tube and oblique, weakly bilabiate limb, the upper lip bifid; stamens 4, often exsert; stigma shortly bifid; ovary with 4 uniovulate chambers; fr drupaceous; trees or shrubs with palmately compound lvs and small cymose infls that may be aggregated into a terminal mixed panicle. 250, nearly cosmop.
Corolla ± zygomorphic (regular in V.schliebenii); tube usually creamy-white, straight or curved, shortly cylindrical to infundibuliform; limb blue lilac mauve or pale yellow (V. chirindensis), upper lip 2-lobed, lower lip 3-lobed, (limb 4-lobed in V.schliebenii), spreading, the lower-lip median lobe usually larger than the laterals and sometimes more strongly coloured.
Infl. of axillary or terminal cymes or panicles. Calyx 5-toothed, corolla-tube short, lobes 5, obliquely 2-lipped. Stamens 4, us. exserted; ovary 2-4-loculed; ovules 1-2 per locule; style filiform, 2-branched. Drupe ± obovoid, succulent, with bony endocarp. Widespread genus with some 100 spp.; the N.Z. sp. endemic.
Leaves opposite, rarely in whorls of 3, digitately compound with (1)3–7 leaflets, usually petiolate; leaflets entire or variously dentate or crenate, often with yellow gland-dots and aromatic; petiolules present or absent.
Ovary initially c. 2-locular, later 4-locular, with a single ovule in each locule, gland-dotted or not, glabrous or apically hairy; style terminal, filiform, bifid, shortly or distinctly exserted (>i>V.>i>schliebenii).
Inflorescences terminal or axillary, mostly of dichasial cymes, occasionally of cymes aggregated into lax panicles, slender or sturdy; bracteoles inconspicuous, linear, narrowly-lanceolate or narrowly-spathulate.
Fruit a drupe or a nut with a hard 4-locular endocarp; fruiting calyx firm and ± cupular to saucer-shaped below the drupe, or enlarged chartaceous campanulate about the nut.
Stamens 4, didynamous, epipetalous, included or exserted from the corolla tube; filaments broadened at the base, glabrous or with glandular or eglandular hairs.
Calyx hemispherical, campanulate or obconical, 5-lobed (4-lobed in V. schliebenii), toothed or truncate, persistent and ± accrescent in fruit.
Shrubs or trees, more rarely scrambling lianes, deciduous or evergreen, bark smooth or vertically fissured.
Seeds 1–4, oblong to obovoid, without endosperm.
