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Electronic Flora of South Australia
Electronic Flora of South Australia
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Electronic Flora of South Australia genus Fact Sheet

Family: Lamiaceae
Nepeta

Citation: L., Sp. Pl. 570 (1753).

Derivation: Latin name of a plant in the family reputedly after the town Nepet or nowadays Nepi.

Synonymy: Not Applicable

Common name: None

Description:
Perennial herbs with quadrangular branches, with mainly, simple hairs; leaves petiolate, opposite, coarsely serrate to crenate, rarely lobed.

Inflorescence a thyrse with sessile cymose part-inflorescences usually forming dense clusters around the nodes and with elongated internodes between them, with bracts leaf-like but usually shorter than the part-inflorescences; sepals more or less equally connate, with pointed lobes becoming slightly shorter on the anterior side, covered with simple hairs; corolla 2-lipped, with a posterior lip broadly oblong, 2-lobed, with anterior lip spathulate, with 2 narrow lateral lobes and a broadly spathulate central one; stamens 4 fertile, inserted at different levels at and above the throat of the corolla tube; anthers with 2 cells fertile and diverging to about 80ø from the attachment of the filaments, exserted; ovary deeply 4-lobed, with each locule with 1 basal ovule, with a gynobasic style and a terminal 2-fid stigma.

Fruit usually with 4 mericarps each oblong-obovoid with a distinct keel inside, with the attachment scar transversely oblong with 2 pits on either of the lower part of the indistinct keel.

Distribution:  About 250 species of temperate Eurasia extending to the mountains of tropical Africa; 1 species naturalised in Australia.

Biology: No text

Author: Not yet available


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