''Vitex'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants t ...

s in the sage

family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...

Lamiaceae The Lamiaceae ( ) or Labiatae are a family of flowering plants commonly known as the mint, deadnettle or sage family. Many of the plants are aromatic in all parts and include widely used culinary herbs like basil, mint, rosemary, sage, savory ...

.List of Genera in Lamiaceae. At: Peter F. Stevens. 2001 onwards. Angiosperm Phylogeny Website At: Missouri Botanical Garden Website. (see ''External links'' below). It has about 250

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriat ...

.Raymond M. Harley, Sandy Atkins, Andrey L. Budantsev, Philip D. Cantino, Barry J. Conn, Renée J. Grayer, Madeline M. Harley, Rogier P.J. de Kok, Tatyana V. Krestovskaja, Ramón Morales, Alan J. Paton, and P. Olof Ryding. 2004. "Labiatae" pages 167-275. In: Klaus Kubitzki (editor) and Joachim W. Kadereit (volume editor). ''The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants'' volume VII. Springer-Verlag: Berlin; Heidelberg, Germany. ''Vitex'' In: Index Nominum Genericorum. In:

Regnum Vegetabile The International Association for Plant Taxonomy (IAPT) is an organization established to promote an understanding of plant biodiversity, facilitate international communication of research between botanists, and oversee matters of uniformity and ...

(see ''External links'' below). Common names include chaste tree or chastetree, traditionally referring to '' V. agnus-castus'', but often applied to other species, as well. Species of ''Vitex'' are

native Native may refer to: People * Jus soli, citizenship by right of birth * Indigenous peoples, peoples with a set of specific rights based on their historical ties to a particular territory ** Native Americans (disambiguation) In arts and entert ...

throughout the

tropics The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the Equator. They are defined in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere at N and the Tropic of Capricorn in the Southern Hemisphere at S. The tropics are also refer ...

and

subtropics The subtropical zones or subtropics are geographical and climate zones to the north and south of the tropics. Geographically part of the temperate zones of both hemispheres, they cover the middle latitudes from to approximately 35° nort ...

, with a few species in

temperate In geography, the temperate climates of Earth occur in the middle latitudes (23.5° to 66.5° N/S of Equator), which span between the tropics and the polar regions of Earth. These zones generally have wider temperature ranges throughout ...

Eurasia Eurasia (, ) is the largest continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. Primarily in the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres, it spans from the British Isles and the Iberian Peninsula in the west to the Japanese archipelag ...

and one in New Zealand.Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families
/ref>David J. Mabberley. 2008. ''Mabberley's Plant-Book'' third edition (2008). Cambridge University Press: UK. About 18 species are known in cultivation. ''V. agnus-castus'' and '' Vitex negundo'' are often grown in temperate climates.Anthony J. Huxley, Mark Griffiths, and Margot Levy (editors). 1992. ''The New Royal Horticultural Society Dictionary of Gardening.'' The Macmillan Press Limited, London; The Stockton Press, New York. About six others are frequently grown in the tropics.George W. Staples and Derral R. Herbst "A Tropical Garden Flora" Bishop Museum Press: Honolulu (2005) Most of the cultivated species serve as

ornamentals Ornamental plants or garden plants are plants that are primarily grown for their beauty but also for qualities such as scent or how they shape physical space. Many flowering plants and garden varieties tend to be specially bred cultivars that i ...

. Some provide valuable

lumber Lumber is wood that has been processed into dimensional lumber, including beams and planks or boards, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, w ...

. The flexible limbs of some species are used in

basket weaving Basket weaving (also basketry or basket making) is the process of weaving or sewing pliable materials into three-dimensional artifacts, such as baskets, mats, mesh bags or even furniture. Craftspeople and artists specialized in making basket ...

. Some of the

aromatic In chemistry, aromaticity is a chemical property of cyclic ( ring-shaped), ''typically'' planar (flat) molecular structures with pi bonds in resonance (those containing delocalized electrons) that gives increased stability compared to satur ...

species are used medicinally or to repel mosquitos. The genus ''Vitex'' was named by

Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the ...

in ''

Species Plantarum ' (Latin for "The Species of Plants") is a book by Carl Linnaeus, originally published in 1753, which lists every species of plant known at the time, classified into genera. It is the first work to consistently apply binomial names and was the ...

'' in 1753.Carolus Linnaeus. 1753. ''Species Plantarum'' 2:706. Laurentii Salvii. (see ''External Links'' below). ''Vitex'' was the name used by

Pliny the Elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/2479), called Pliny the Elder (), was a Roman author, naturalist and natural philosopher, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the emperor Vespasian. He wrote the encyclopedic ' ...

for ''Vitex agnus-castus''. It is

derived Derive may refer to: *Derive (computer algebra system), a commercial system made by Texas Instruments * ''Dérive'' (magazine), an Austrian science magazine on urbanism *Dérive, a psychogeographical concept See also * *Derivation (disambiguation ...

from the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...

''vieo'', meaning to weave or to tie up, a reference to the use of ''V. agnus-castus'' in basketry.Umberto Quattrocchi. 2000. ''CRC World Dictionary of Plant Names'' volume I, page 91. CRC Press: Boca Raton; New York; Washington, DC;, US. London, UK. (set). (see ''External links'' below). As a result of

phylogenetic In biology, phylogenetics (; from Greek φυλή/ φῦλον [] "tribe, clan, race", and wikt:γενετικός, γενετικός [] "origin, source, birth") is the study of the evolutionary history and relationships among or within groups ...

studies of

DNA sequence DNA sequencing is the process of determining the nucleic acid sequence – the order of nucleotides in DNA. It includes any method or technology that is used to determine the order of the four bases: adenine, guanine, cytosine, and thymine. T ...

s, ''Vitex'' is one of several genera that were transferred from the

Verbenaceae The Verbenaceae ( ), the verbena family or vervain family, is a family of mainly tropical flowering plants. It contains trees, shrubs, and herbs notable for heads, spikes, or clusters of small flowers, many of which have an aromatic smell. The ...

to thevLamiaceae in the 1990s. It is the largest genus in the

subfamily In biological classification, a subfamily (Latin: ', plural ') is an auxiliary (intermediate) taxonomic rank, next below family but more inclusive than genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classifica ...

Viticoideae Viticoideae is one of seven subfamilies in the sage family, Lamiaceae. Genera This subfamily contains the following 10 genera: * '' Cornutia'' L. * ''Gmelina'' L. * '' Paravitex'' Fletcher * '' Petitia'' Jacq. * '' Pseudocarpidium'' Millsp. * ' ...

Taxon In biology, a taxon ( back-formation from '' taxonomy''; plural taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular n ...

sampling in molecular phylogenetic studies has never been sufficient to test the

monophyly In cladistics for a group of organisms, monophyly is the condition of being a clade—that is, a group of taxa composed only of a common ancestor (or more precisely an ancestral population) and all of its lineal descendants. Monophyletic ...

of the Viticoideae, but it is generally thought to be an unnatural group.Systematics of Lamiaceae Subfamily Viticoideae. At: Website of Kew Gardens. (see ''External links'' below). The subfamily is probably diphyletic, with '' Premna'', ''

Gmelina ''Gmelina'' is a genus of plants in the family Lamiaceae. It consists of about 35 species in Australia, New Guinea, New Caledonia, Southeast Asia, India and a few in Africa. Some species such as ''G. arborea'' have been planted and/or become nat ...

'', and ''

Cornutia ''Cornutia'' is a genus of plants in the family Lamiaceae, first described in 1753. It is native to tropical parts of the Western Hemisphere: southern Mexico, Central America, West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, s ...

'' constituting one

clade A clade (), also known as a monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that are monophyletic – that is, composed of a common ancestor and all its lineal descendants – on a phylogenetic tree. Rather than the English ter ...

, and with ''Vitex'', ''Petitia'', ''Pseudocarpidium'', and ''Teijsmanniodendron'' constituting the other.Gemma L.C. Bramley, Félix Forest, and Rogier P.J. de Kok. 2009. "Troublesome tropical mints: re-examining generic limits of ''Vitex'' and relations (Lamiaceae) in South East Asia". ''Taxon'' 58(2):500-510.

Description

''Vitex'' is a genus of shrubs and trees, from 1.0 to 35 m tall. Some species have whitish bark that is characteristically furrowed. Leaves are opposite, usually compound. The fruit is a

drupe In botany, a drupe (or stone fruit) is an indehiscent fruit in which an outer fleshy part ( exocarp, or skin, and mesocarp, or flesh) surrounds a single shell (the ''pit'', ''stone'', or ''pyrena'') of hardened endocarp with a seed (''kernel ...

Circumscription

In 2009, a

molecular phylogenetic Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to ...

study showed that three small genera, ''Paravitex'', ''Viticipremna'', and ''Tsoongia'', are embedded in ''Vitex''. These three genera were duly sunk into synonymy with ''Vitex''. ''Pseudocarpidium'', ''Petitia'', and ''Teijsmanniodendron'' possibly are nested within ''Vitex''. Sampling in the 2009 study was not sufficient to determine the phylogenetic position of these genera. The relationships of ''Teijsmanniodendron'' to these genera was not discussed in a revision of ''Teijsmanniodendron'' in 2009.Rogier P.J. de Kok, Go Rusea, and Abdul Latiff. 2009. "The Genus ''Teijsmanniodendron'' Koord. (Lamiaceae)". ''Kew Bulletin'' 64(4):587-625.

Selected species

* ''

Vitex acunae ''Vitex acunae'' is a species of plant in the family Lamiaceae. It is endemic to Cuba. It is threatened by habitat loss Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss and habitat reduction) is the process by which a natural habitat becomes ...

'' * ''

Vitex agnus-castus ''Vitex agnus-castus'', also called vitex, chaste tree (or chastetree), chasteberry, Abraham's balm, lilac chastetree, or monk's pepper, is a native of the Mediterranean region. It is one of the few temperate-zone species of '' Vitex'', which is ...

'' — chasteberry, monk's pepper, chastetree * '' Vitex ajugaeflora'' * '' Vitex altissima'' * '' Vitex amaniensis'' * '' Vitex capitata'' * '' Vitex chrysocarpa'' * '' Vitex cofassus'' * '' Vitex cooperi'' * '' Vitex cymosa'' * '' Vitex divaricata'' * ''

Vitex doniana ''Vitex doniana'' is a tree native to the Afrotropics. Its fruits are one of several fruits called black plums. This tree is often grown for its fruits. Description It grows to , and rarely up to . Its fruits are at most in length. ''V. doniana ...

'' — wild African black plum, koronfinfin * '' Vitex evoluta'' * '' Vitex gaumeri'' * '' Vitex gigantea'' * '' Vitex heptaphylla'' * ''

Vitex keniensis ''Vitex keniensis'' (also called Meru oak) is a species of plant in the family Lamiaceae. It is endemic to Kenya. It is threatened by habitat loss. It is a magnificent tree when mature, being one of the largest trees that are native to Keny ...

'' — Meru oak * '' Vitex kuylenii'' * '' Vitex lehmbachii'' * '' Vitex leucoxylon'' * ''

Vitex lignum-vitae ''Vitex lignum-vitae'', known in Australia as yellow hollywood or " lignum-vitae" (also used for other species), is a rainforest tree of eastern Australia. The natural range of distribution is in dry, sub-tropical or tropical rainforest from t ...

'' — yellow hollywood, lignum-vitae * '' Vitex lindenii'' * '' Vitex longisepala'' * ''

Vitex lucens ''Vitex lucens'', or pūriri, is an evergreen tree endemic to New Zealand. History Pūriri was first collected (by Europeans) at Tolaga Bay by Banks and Solander during Cook's first visit in 1769. The plant was excellently described by Soland ...

'' — puriri * '' Vitex megapotamica'' * '' Vitex negundo'' — five-leaf chastetree * '' Vitex obovata'' * '' Vitex orinocensis'' * ''

Vitex parviflora ''Vitex parviflora'' is a species of plant in the family Verbenaceae, also known as smallflower chastetree or the molave tree. The name "molave" is from Spanish, derived from ''mulawin'', the Tagalog word for the tree. It is also known as ''tugas ...

'' — Molave tree * '' Vitex peduncularis'' * '' Vitex pinnata'' * ''

Vitex quinata ''Vitex'' is a genus of flowering plants in the sage family Lamiaceae.List of Genera in Lamiaceae. At: Peter F. Stevens. 2001 onwards. Angiosperm Phylogeny Website At: Missouri Botanical Garden Website. (see ''External links'' below). It has ...

'' * '' Vitex rotundifolia'' — beach vitex * '' Vitex thyrsiflora'' * '' Vitex triflora'' * '' Vitex trifolia'' — simpleleaf chastetree * '' Vitex tripinnata'' * '' Vitex urceolata'' * '' Vitex yaundensis'' * '' Vitex zanzibarensis'' * '' Vitex zeyheri'' Vitex cannabifolia1

Description

Circumscription

Selected species

References

Further reading

External links