SCROPHULARIACEAE  

Perennial herbs or almost subshrubs, most parts densely and minutely white-pubescent; stems much branched, erect to ascending or procumbent; branches 4-angled, leafy. Leaves opposite, ovate, petiolate, acute, cuneate, serrate-dentate. Flowers small, axillary, solitary, bracteate; in a lax raceme; pedicels filiform, minutely bibracteolate, decurved in fruit. Bracts foliose. Calyx 5-partite; lobes +/- narrowly triangular, acute, subequal, pilose. Corolla tubular, bilabiate, subcampanulate, 5-lobed; tube cylindrical to somewhat dilated at mouth, sparsely pilose to subglabrous outside; upper lip shortly 2-lobed, exterior in bud; lobes triangular-ovate; lower lip somewhat larger, shortly 3-lobed, subcircular, with a distinct palate, minutely pubescent within. Stamens 4, perfect, didynamous, arising +/- halfway up corolla tube, included in upper lip; all filaments curved inwards but longer anterior ones also bent outwards at base; anthers bithecate; thecae ovoid, equal, confluent at apex, strongly divergent; staminode 1, filiform, arising near base of corolla tube, or 0. Ovary bilocular, narrowly conical, attenuate into slender style; ovules many. Fruit an ellipsoid-conical, shortly beaked, puberulous, septicidal capsule, turned downwards; valves coherent or connivent at apex after dehiscence. Seeds small, many, narrowly oblong, usually somewhat curved, longitudinally ribbed.

Shrublets, suffrutices, perennial or rarely annual herbs; stems erect, decumbent or prostrate; hairs on stems, leaves, bracts and calyx with sculptured walls. Leaves usually alternate, sometimes opposite near base, and alternate upwards, rarely opposite throughout, often fascicled, small, narrow, oblong, elliptical or spathulate, entire or sometimes toothed. Flowers sessile, subsessile, or shortly pedicellate, bracteate, in a spike or raceme, congested or elongated, solitary or aggregated into corymbs or elongate panicles, often elongating in fruit. Bracts usually adnate to pedicel and calyx tube, sometimes free. Calyx tubular, +/- regular to irregular, shortly to deeply (2)3-5-lobed; tube broad or narrow; posterior lobe often narrower and/or shorter than others, or lobes sometimes subequal. Corolla tubular, usually bilabiate and 5-lobed, rarely 4-lobed and then rotate, without yellow/orange patch; tube often funnel-shaped, sometimes cylindrical, usually glabrous, sometimes pubescent; limb always glabrous inside; posterior lip 2- or 1-lobed, exterior in bud, glabrous; anterior lip 3-lobed; lobes oblong or obovate. Stamens usually 4 (2 in 1 species or sometimes 0), didynamous, arising at various depths within corolla tube; filaments subterete or linear, posterior ones decurrent down tube (except in 1 species); anthers synthecate, dorsifixed; posterior ones in throat, mouth, or exserted; anterior ones usually at least shortly exserted (all anthers deeply included in 1 species); staminodes 0-4 (reduction of stamens to staminodes is fairly common, especially in very small flowers, forming functionally female flowers). Nectary adnate on posterior side of ovary base. Ovary usually bilocular (occasionally unilocular in one species), subglobose or ovoid; ovules 1 per locule, pendulous; style filiform, merging into lingulate stigma with 2 marginal bands of stigmatic papillae. Fruit a pair of +/- equal, ovate or oblong, hard-walled, indehiscent cocci (rarely with 1 coccus aborted), sometimes held within accrescent calyx, often separating at maturity, rarely held together by common pericarp or fused; cocci convex on outer face, plane on other; pericarp smooth or rugulose. Seeds usually cylindrical, sometimes with spurious cells which coalesce, at times, to form cavities. x = 7 (1 report).

Annual herbs, erect, slender, hemiparasitic on roots, turning dark on drying; stems simple or branched, glabrous, smooth. Leaves opposite or upper ones alternate, simple and filiform or pinnatisect with filiform segments. Flowers axillary or supra-axillary, pedicellate, bracteate and bibracteolate, in terminal racemes. Bracts opposite, leaf-like; bracteoles arising from +/- middle of pedicel to just below calyx. Calyx tubular, 5-cleft or deeply 5-lobed; tube short and wide, campanulate; lobes ovate at base, filiform at tip, valvate in bud. Corolla tubular, +/- regular, 5-lobed, exserted, long persisting around maturing capsule; tube long, straight or curved, +/- cylindrical below, abruptly widening above, with stalked glandular hairs outside; limb spreading; lobes equal or subequal, elliptic or obovate, imbricate, posterior lobes interior in bud. Stamens 4, +/- equal, arising all at one level in upper part of corolla tube, included; filaments short, linear, bearded at base; anthers erect, dorsifixed, unithecate, without evidence of second theca. Ovary bilocular, globose or ovoid; ovules many; style linear, usually +/- as long as corolla tube, hence exceeding stamens; stigma lingulate. Fruit usually a +/- distinctly beaked capsule, vertically somewhat compressed, held erect or oblique, loculicidal along both sutures or rarely one, enclosed in persistent calyx. Seeds many, cylindrical or obovoid; testa reticulate, membranous.

Annual or perennial herbs or subshrubs; stems erect, decumbent or prostrate, sometimes with axillary leaf tufts (incipient branches, not leaf fascicles), usually winged or ridged by decurrent leaf bases; hairs on main parts (not inside corolla tube) thin-walled. Leaves opposite, and then bases sometimes connate, usually becoming alternate upwards, variously shaped between broadly ovate and linear, oblanceolate and spathulate, rarely rhomboid, bases usually narrowed but rarely petiolate, usually dentate in upper half, often glandular-punctate, somewhat pubescent or glabrous, rarely villous. Flowers small, sessile, bracteate, in a spike, or several forming a corymb or narrow panicle. Bracts adnate to calyx tube, base often inflated, usually indurated with age, persistent. Calyx deeply 5-lobed, more than halfway, posterior lobe shortest, lobes narrowly triangular, usually becoming indurated with age. Corolla tubular, bilabiate, 5-lobed; tube funnel-shaped or cylindrical, glabrous outside; posterior lip usually 2-lobed, sometimes apparently 4-lobed when lateral lobes of anterior lip are ascending, exterior in bud, with yellow/orange (perhaps sometimes white) patch at base and briefly extending down back of throat, bearded there with 1-celled, clavate hairs, these sometimes extending to the usually 3-lobed, sometimes apparently simple, anterior lip. Stamens 4, didynamous, arising near top of corolla tube; posterior filaments usually decurrent down tube; anthers synthecate, dorsifixed, posterior ones either exserted or held in mouth, anterior ones exserted, rarely included. Nectary small, adnate on posterior side of ovary. Ovary bilocular, elliptical-oblong, base slightly oblique; 1 pendulous ovule per locule; style filiform, merging imperceptibly into lingulate stigma with marginal bands of stigmatic papillae. Fruit a pair of soft-walled cocci, convex on outer face. Seeds elliptical, compressed, convex on one face, +/- plane on the other, smooth or rugulose.

Small, annual or perennial herbs; stems leafy throughout or +/- nude above, pubescence mainly eglandular with hairs retrorse or sometimes patent, sometimes some patent, gland-tipped hairs present as well but not dominant. Leaves opposite below, alternate above, sometimes pseudofasciculate or crowded at base, variously shaped but often elliptical to ovate, usually petiolate, entire to serrate, usually pubescent to some extent, at times glandular punctate. Flowers in racemes, elongate or capitate, always erect. Bracts adnate to pedicel and at least halfway up calyx tube, patent, eglandular hairs always present at least on lower margins. Calyx usually tubular, distinctly or obscurely bilabiate, 5-lobed mostly halfway or more to base, rarely calyx incompletely tubular with 3 posterior lobes free to base and 2 anterior ones joined to +/- halfway, that is, the part where bract is adnate to calyx; membranous. Corolla bilabiate, membranous, persistent; tube cylindrical to narrowly funnel-shaped, usually glabrous outside, rarely pubescent; posterior lip 2-lobed, exterior in bud, sometimes with an orange/yellow patch at base, there either glabrous or bearded with unicellular clavate hairs; anterior lip 3-lobed; lobes entire. Stamens usually 4, didynamous, rarely 2, or sometimes reduced to 2 or 3 in self-fertilised flowers, well exserted in chasmogamous flowers; posterior filaments decurrent at least halfway down corolla tube; anterior pair exceeding posterior pair; anthers synthecate, dorsifixed. Nectary at base of ovary on shorter side. Ovary bilocular, elliptical, usually glabrous; ovules few to many per locule; style filiform, passing gradually into lingulate stigma with two marginal bands of stigmatic papillae. Fruit a septicidal capsule with a short loculicidal split at tip of each valve. Seeds elliptic or angled, mostly colliculate and +/- wrinkled as well, sometimes smooth, +/- opaque, pale amber, creamy, greyish, mauvish, bluish or dark blue-grey, not winged; testa tightly investing endosperm. x = 6.