e-Key v3 - Satureja
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Interactive keys to the identification of seed plants of southern Africa using keys based on plant morphology.

Lamiaceae - Nepetoideae - Mentheae - Satureja L.

Description :

  • Perennial herbs or soft shrubs
  • Leaves small, entire or obscurely toothed
  • Flowers solitary or in few- to several-flowered cymes in axils of undifferentiated leaves along upper half of stems (or sometimes lower)
  • Calyx tubular or tubular-campanulate, 13-15-nerved, subequally 5-toothed, scarcely enlarging in fruiting stage
  • Corolla scarcely or well exserted from calyx, dimorphic in some species; tube straight, cylindric below, campanulate above; upper lip short, broad, emarginate; lower lip longer, 3-lobed, middle lobe the largest
  • Stamens 4, didynamous, included, arising near throat, curved upwards, two lower the longer
  • Style included, 2-lobed
  • Nutlets ovoid to oblong, smooth
  • x = 15 (9, 11, 12) (aneuploids, polyploidy, B-chromosomes)

Classification Notes:

  • Often spelt Satureia

Nomenclature:

  • Satureja L. (often spelt Satureia )
    • Linnaeus: 567 (1753)
    • Linnaeus: 247 (1754)
    • Bentham: 351 (1834)
    • Bentham: 208 (1848)
    • Bentham: 1187 (1876)
    • Briquet: 296 (1896)
    • Codd: 103 (1985)
  • Micromeria Benth.
    • Bentham: t. 1282 (1829)
    • Bentham: 368 (1834)
    • Bentham: 212 (1848)
    • Bentham: 1188 (1876)
    • Baker: 452 (1900)
    • Cooke: 306 (1910)

Distribution & Notes:

  • Global : Species ± 30, cosmopolitan
  • Southern Africa : Species 4, Northern Province, Gauteng, Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal, Lesotho and Eastern Cape

References:

  • BAKER, J.G. 1900. Verbenaceae , Labiatae . Flora of tropical Africa 5
  • BENTHAM, G. 1829. Lophanthus anisatus . Botanical Register 15
  • BENTHAM, G. 1832-1836. Labiatarum genera et species . James Ridgeway and Sons, Piccadilly
  • 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
  • CODD, L.E. 1985. Lamiaceae . Flora of southern Africa 28
  • COOKE, T. 1910. Labiatae . Flora capensis 5,1
  • LINNAEUS, C. 1753. Species plantarum . Salvius, Stockholm
  • LINNAEUS, C. 1754. Genera plantarum , edn 5. Salvius, Stockholm