Otostegia in Flora of Pakistan @ efloras.org

28. Otostegia Benth., Lab. Gen. et Sp. 601. 1834. Benth. in DC., Prodr. 12: 552. 1848; Boiss., Fl. Or. 4: 766. 1879; Hook. f., Fl. Brit. Ind. 4: 679. 1885; Briquet in Engler & Prantl, Nat. Pflanzenfam. ed. 1, 4, 3A: 258. 1896; Kudrjaschev, Monograph of Otostegia, in Trudy Bot. Sekt. Kom. Nauk Uzbek SSSR 1939 [in Russian]; Mukerjee in Rec. Bot. Surv. Ind. 14, 1: 157. 1940; Gorshkova in Komarov, Fl. URSS 21: 182. 1954; Hedge & Lamond in Notes Roy. Bot. Gard. Edinb. 28: 125, f. 3. 1968; Rech. f., Fl. Iran. 150: 347. 1982.

I.C. Hedge

Shrubs or subshrubs, glabrous or pubescent with simple hairs. Leaves not divided, entire, crenate or dentate, sessile or shortly petiolate, spine-tipped or not; hard spines present in leaf axils On ours). Verticillasters distant, borne in upper leaf axils, 2-6(-8)-flowered. Calyx clearly differentiated into a tube and a spreading limb, 10-nerved, bilabiate, irregularly 5-toothed or more; in fruit coriaceous with the limb enlarging and horizontally spreading or reflexed. Corolla clearly bilabiate, yellowish-white; tube included within calyx, piloseannulate within; upper lip ± falcate or straight, vinous; lower lip spreading, 3-lobed median lobe larger than laterals. Stamens 4, didynamous; filaments glabrous or pilose; thecae 2-Jocular, glabrous. Style subequally bifid. Nutlets obovoid, apically obtuse-truncate or truncate.

A distinct genus of c. 20 species with 2 disjunct areas of concentration: one in the C. Asian-Afghan-Pakistan region; the other in the mountains of east Africa (cf. Hedge & Lamond l.c. fig. 3). Probably allied to Ballota L.

1 Leaves obovate to suborbicular, crenate; nervation prominent beneath 1 Otostegia persica

+ Leaves narrowly elliptic - lanceolate, entire; nervation indistinct (2)

2 (1) Leaves acuminate and spinulose at apex; corolla white 2 Otostegia aucheri

+ Leaves obtuse and not spinulose at apex; corolla yellow 3 Otostegia limbata

Lower Taxa

Related Synonym(s):