Description :

• Herbs, mainly perennial, shrubs or trees, often aromatic; branches usually 4-angled
• Leaves opposite or whorled, simple, rarely pinnately lobed ( Teucrium ) or digitately compound ( Cedronella , Vitex ), entire or toothed; usually gland-dotted and aromatic; stipules 0
• Flowers irregular to regular, bisexual or rarely unisexual ( Tetradenia ), solitary and opposite or aggregated into cymes or verticils arranged in terminal, spike-like compound inflorescences found on main or sometimes lateral branches; bracts present, leaf-like or reduced, often caducous
• Calyx of 5 fused sepals, tubular, campanulate to spreading, usually persistent and often enlarged in fruit, rarely becoming fleshy ( Hoslundia ), regularly or irregularly 3-many-toothed, or with 2 entire or toothed lips, rarely truncate or 5-partite, sometimes with posterior lobe broadly ovate and decurrent on tube
• Corolla of 5 ± fused petals, (1)2-labiate or ± regular and 4- or 5-lobed
• Stamens (2)4, subequal or in pairs of unequal length (didynamous), all or only 1 pair fertile, arising at corolla mouth or in tube; filaments sometimes connate, sometimes with a crest or projection near base; anthers 1- or 2-thecous, with longitudinal slits
• Ovary superior, seated on an entire or lobed disc, deeply or shortly 4-lobed, 4-locular, with a single ovule in each locule; ovules lateral on false septa; style gynobasic or terminal; stigma usually inconspicuous at tips of 2 stylar branches or lobes or entire
• Fruit composed of 4, or by abortion fewer, dry, 1-seeded nutlets; nutlets rugose or smooth, rarely winged ( Tinnea ); or fruit a drupe with 1-4 pyrenes
• Seeds with embryo straight and little or no endosperm

Classification Notes:

• The treatment of the Lamiaceae is based on the account of Codd (1985). Four genera, namely Clerodendrum , Karomia , Premna and Vitex , were moved from the Verbenaceae to the Lamiaceae according to Cantino (1992)

Nomenclature:

• Lamiaceae
  • Jussieu: 110 (1789) as Labiatae
  • Bentham: 25 (1848) as Labiatae
  • Bentham: 1160 (1876) as Labiatae
  • Briquet: 183 (1895-1897) as Labiatae
  • Baker: 332 (1900) as Labiatae
  • Brown et al.: 226 (1910) as Labiatae
  • Launert & Schreiber: 1 (1969)
  • Codd: 1 (1985)
  • Zomlefer: 265 (1994)
  • Hedge et al.: 1 (1998)

Distribution & Notes:

• Global : Genera 252, species 6700; cosmopolitan in warm and temperate areas
• Southern Africa : 41 (37) genera and 235 species are indigenous or naturalised in southern Africa, occurring mainly in eastern parts of region; many species have links with tropical Africa and may be regarded as peripheral tropical taxa

References:

• BAKER, J.G. 1900. Labiatae . Flora of tropical Africa 5
• BENTHAM, G.1848. Labiatae . In A. de Candolle, Prodromus 12. Victor Masson, Paris
• BENTHAM, G. 1876. Labiatae . In G. Bentham & J.D. Hooker, Genera plantarum 2. Lovell Reeve & Co., Covent Garden
• BRIQUET, J. 1895-1897. Labiatae . Die natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien 4,3a
• BROWN, N.E., COOKE, T. & SKAN, S.A. 1910. Order CV. Labiatae . Flora capensis 5
• CODD, L.E. 1985. Lamiaceae . Flora of southern Africa 28
• HEDGE, I.C., CLEMENT, R.A., PATON, A.J. & PHILLIPSON, P.B. 1998. Labiatae . Famille 175. Flore de Madagascar et des Comores
• JUSSIEU, A.L. DE. 1789. Labiatae . Genera plantarum . Herissant & Barrois, Paris
• LAUNERT, E. & SCHREIBER, A. 1969. Lamiaceae . Prodromus einer Flora von Südwestafrika 123
• ZOMLEFER, W.B. 1994. Guide to the flowering plant families . University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill

Resources:

• Classification of Lamiaceae
• Key to Lamiaceae genera

• Lamiaceae genera: