Description :

• Herbs, undershrubs or shrubs
• Leaves usually toothed or ± deeply lobed
• Inflorescences terminal, cymes 1-flowered with peduncles usually much shorter than leaves or peduncles, usually 2 per node, 3-7-flowered, cymes often as long as or longer than leaves; bracts leaf-like, usually becoming smaller towards apex of inflorescence
• Calyx ± as long as corolla tube, subequally 5-toothed
• Corolla small, white, 5-lobed, lowermost lobe the largest, longer than tube, giving a 1-lipped appearance; tube short, hairy in throat
• Stamens 4, ascending-arcuate between two upper corolla lobes, well exserted; filaments thread-like, villous at base; anthers 2-thecous
• Ovary shortly 4-lobed; style slightly exceeding stamens, terete, 2-fid, lobes subequal
• Nutlets obovoid, reticulate-rugose, attached by an oblique or lateral areole which extends beyond middle
• x = 8, 10, 13 (9, 17) (aneuploids, polyploidy)

Nomenclature:

• Teucrium L.
  • Linnaeus: 562 (1753)
  • Linnaeus: 247 (1754)
  • Bentham: 574 (1848)
  • Briquet: 210 (1895)
  • Baker: 500 (1900)
  • Skan: 384 (1910)
  • Codd: 9 (1985)

Distribution & Notes:

• Global : Species 100, widely distributed over the temperate and warmer regions of the world, mainly in the northern hemisphere
• Southern Africa : Species 3, the northern provinces, Swaziland, KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape and all along the coast to Bredasdorp (S Western Cape)