Source:
SSA
Description:
Annual or perennial soft herbs. Leaves +/- cordate, toothed or incised. Inflorescences usually simple, of one to several, spaced or fairly crowded verticils; verticils few- to many-flowered; bracts broad-based, often clasping; bracteoles not evident. Calyx tubular-campanulate, usually 5-nerved with 5 equal or subequal teeth, uppermost often the longest. Corolla bilabiate, white, pink or purple; tube dilated towards mouth, usually longer than calyx; upper lip ascending, concave, ovate or oblong, usually entire; lower lip spreading or deflexed, obovate, emarginate, with or without small lateral lobes. Stamens 4, didynamous, anterior pair longer, arcuate in upper lip; anthers 2-thecous, divaricate, often hirsute on back. Style with stigma 2-lobed. Nutlets oblong, triquetrous, somewhat truncate at apex, smooth or tuberculate. x = 9 (8) (polyploidy).
Distribution:
Species +/- 40, mainly in the North Temperate zone of the Old World; 1 species: *Lamium amplexicaule (L.) Benth. a native of Europe, is now a widespread weed and fairly widely distributed in gardens and waste places in sthn Afr.
Classification:
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