I.C. Hedge

Subshrubs, aromatic, erect, much branched. Stems and leaves with a prominent indumentum of small adpressed dendroid-stellate hairs and numerous sessile oil globules. Leaves simple or pinnatisect, margins entire to serrate. Inflorescence widely branched, paniculate, showy. Verticillasters many, 2-6-flowered, distant. Flowers with a short pedicel or sessile. Calyx inconspicuously bilabiate; upper lip indistinctly tridentate; lower lip subequal to upper, bidentate; in fruit increasing slightly in length and width. Corolla violet-blue (in ours), rarely white, c. 2 x length of calyx; tube somewhat ampliate, pilose-annulate; upper lip subequally 4-lobed, ± erect; lower lip entire 1-lobed, somewhat reflexed. Stamens 2, the anterior pair, dearly exserted or included, within the same species; thecae both fertile, parallel, separated by a short connective; staminodes 2, small, posterior. Style included or clearly exserted; stylar arms divergent, thickened, flat. Nutlets 4, ovoid, smooth.

About 7 species are recognized, but a new assessment is much needed. A typical genus of Central Asia - Afghanistan and Pakistan, extending to E. Iran. It is very isolated in the family; the shrubby habit, the corolla structure of a 4-lobed upper lip and a 1-lobed lower lip combined with the 2 stamens and the bilocular thecae separated by a short connective, set it far apart from other Labiate genera (cf. Bokhari & Hedge, l.c.). In corolla structure, and the apparently decimate stamens, Perovskia is reminiscent of some of the Ocimoid genera.

Lower Taxa

• Perovskia abrotanoides Karel.
• Perovskia atriplicifolia Benth.

Related Synonym(s):

• Perovskia artemisioides Boiss. = Perovskia abrotanoides Karel.