Source:
SSA
Description:
Perennial herbs, often decumbent or stoloniferous. Leaves mostly in a basal rosette, usually coarsely toothed to incised. Inflorescences terminal, spike-like, verticillate; verticils 2-many-flowered; bracts leaf-like, becoming smaller towards apex. Calyx short, subequally 5-fid or 5-toothed; tube campanulate. Corolla unequally 2-lipped; tube short, constricted near base with a ring of hairs within constriction; upper lip short, subentire, emarginate or 2-fid; lower lip large, spreading, 3-lobed, median lobe the largest, emarginate or 2-fid. Stamens 4, curved within upper lip, lower pair slightly longer; filaments linear; anthers 2-thecous, with thecae divergent, finally confluent. Ovary shortly 4-lobed nearly to middle; style 2-fid, lobes somewhat unequal. Nutlets obovoid, reticulate-rugose, attached by a broad oblique areole which extends beyond middle. x = 8 (7) (aneuploids, high polyploidy, B-chromosomes-1 report).
Distribution:
Species 50, mainly in temperate areas of the Old World; 1 in sthn Afr.: Ajuga ophrydis Burch. ex Benth. in eastern parts of region: Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Free State, Swaziland, KwaZulu-Natal, Lesotho and Eastern Cape.
Classification:
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