Verbenaceae

Vervain (Verbena officinalis ), illustration

The verbena family ( Verbenaceae ) are a family of plants that belongs to the order Lippenblütlerartigen ( Lamiales ). Some species and their varieties are used as ornamental trees in parks, gardens and as bedding and balcony plants. There are also some medicinal plants.

Description

There are usually herbaceous plants or shrubs, rarely trees or vines. The stems are often square. The mostly opposite, rarely arranged in whorls leaves are usually simple or three pieces, rarely composed. Stipules are not available.

The aged men, racemose or zymösen in most species inflorescences usually have bracts ( bracts ). The hermaphrodite flowers are usually small to medium in size, zygomorphic (rarely radial symmetry ) and have a double perianth ( perianth ). You have ( four or ) five ( or eight ) intergrown sepals and ( four or ) five ( or eight ) deformed petals. There is only one stamen circle exists; the ( two or ) four ( or five ) stamens are fused with the calyx ( Corolla ). Usually two carpels are fused into a superior ovaries ( synkarp ).

Flowers formula:

In many species, pollination is done by insects ( entomophilous ). Are formed stone fruits or fruit capsules.

The types of verbena plants contain essential oil.

Dissemination

The areas are located in the temperate zone, subtropical and tropical. It is prevalent in temperate latitudes, a focus of the biodiversity they have in the tropics. They are missing in the central and northern Eurasia.

System

The Verbenaceae family in 1805 was set up by Jean Henri Jaume Saint- Hilaire in exposure of Familles Naturelles, 1, p 245. Type genus is Verbena L.. Synonyms for Verbenaceae J.St. - Hil. are Durantaceae J.Agardh and Petreaceae J.Agardh.

Obtained using molecular biological methods insights into the phylogeny of Lippenblütlerartigen have led to a narrowing of the scope of the family. Before even genera were to be counted, now to the Labiatae ( Lamiaceae) and acanthus ( Acanthaceae ) are expected. The family contains at about 30 to 35 replaced by the narrower species and about 1200 species (as in APWebsite ). Here, for example the genera Verbena has been split into three genera: Verbena s.str, Glandularia and Junellia. .

The Verbenaceae family today contains about 34 genera:

• Acantholippia Griseb. The six types come from Bolivia to Chile before.
• Lemon shrubs ( Aloysia Palau ): The approximately 43 species occur in subtropical regions of the New World, for example: Lemon verbena ( Aloysia citriodora Palau, also sometimes called Lippia triphylla ), whose leaves smell strongly of lemon and is used as a tea and medicinal plant.

• Baillonia amabilis Bocq. ex Baill. It comes from Bolivia prior to the Argentine province of Formosa.

• Citharexylum spinosum L.: sometimes used as an ornamental plant.

• Duranta erecta L.: sometimes used as an ornamental plant.

• Hierobotana inflata ( Kunth ) Briq. It is widespread in western South America from Ecuador and Colombia to Peru.

• Aztec sweet herb ( Lippia dulcis Trevir. )
• Lippia magentea T.R.S.Silva

• Phyla nodiflora (L.) Greene: It can be used in tropical regions as a lawn substitute.

• Pitraea cuneato ovata ( Cav. ) Caro: It is widely used in Peru to central Chile and from southeastern Brazil to northern Argentina.

• Recordia boliviana Moldenke: It occurs only in the eastern - central Bolivia.

• Verbenoxylum reitzii ( Moldenke ) Tronc. It occurs only in the southern Brazilian states of Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul.

• Xeroaloysia ovatifolia ( Moldenke ) Tronc. It occurs only in the north-western Argentina.

• Xolocotzia asperifolia Miranda: It is distributed by the Mexican state of Chiapas to Honduras.

Swell

• The Verbenaceae in the APWebsite family. (Sections Description and systematics)
• Dissertation of Ursula von Mulert: Phylogeny of Verbenaceae: Cladistic studies with morphological and chemical characteristics, 2001 with versatile information on the taxonomy and descriptions of the most important genera and analysis of the characteristics. .. (PDF file, 7.75 MB )
• Flavio França & Sandy Atkins, 2009: Neotropical Verbenaceae at Neotropikey - Interactive key and information resources for flowering plants of the Neotropics. (Sections Description and systematics)