''Chloanthes'' is a genus of four species of flowering plants in the family

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 ...

and is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to Australia. Plants in this genus are shrubs with hairy foliage, blistered or wrinkly leaves and flowers with five petals fused at the base, usually with two "lips".

Description

Plants in the genus ''Chloanthes'' are shrubs with woolly-hairy foliage, erect stems and simple,

sessile Sessility, or sessile, may refer to: * Sessility (motility), organisms which are not able to move about * Sessility (botany), flowers or leaves that grow directly from the stem or peduncle of a plant * Sessility (medicine), tumors and polyps that ...

decussate Decussation is used in biological contexts to describe a crossing (due to the shape of the Roman numeral for ten, an uppercase 'X' (), ). In Latin anatomical terms, the form is used, e.g. . Similarly, the anatomical term chiasma is named aft ...

or whorled leaves with blistered or wrinkly edges and that more or less hide the branches. The flowers are arranged singly in leaf axils and are sessile, with

bract In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, especially one associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis or cone scale. Bracts are usually different from foliage leaves. They may be smaller, larger, or of ...

s and bracteoles. The

sepal A sepal () is a part of the flower of angiosperms (flowering plants). Usually green, sepals typically function as protection for the flower in bud, and often as support for the petals when in bloom., p. 106 The term ''sepalum'' was coined b ...

s are fused at the base with five lobes. The five petals are fused at the base with two "lips", the upper lip with two lobes and the lower lip with three, the middle lower lip larger than the others. There are four

stamen The stamen (plural ''stamina'' or ''stamens'') is the pollen-producing reproductive organ of a flower. Collectively the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filame ...

s attached near the middle of the petal tube. 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'') ...

with four

locule A locule (plural locules) or loculus (plural loculi) (meaning "little place" in Latin) is a small cavity or compartment within an organ or part of an organism (animal, plant, or fungus). In angiosperms (flowering plants), the term ''locule'' usu ...

s, each containing a single seed.

Taxonomy

The genus ''Chloanthes'' was first formally described in 1810 by Robert Brown in his '' Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae et Insulae Van Diemen''. In 1960,

Arthur Allman Bullock Arthur is a common male given name of Brythonic origin. Its popularity derives from it being the name of the legendary hero King Arthur. The etymology is disputed. It may derive from the Celtic ''Artos'' meaning “Bear”. Another theory, more ...

nominated '' C. stoechadis'' as the type species, because it was "better known" in herbaria than the other species, '' C. glandulosa'' included in Brown's descriptions.

Species list

The following is a list of species of ''Chloanthes'' accepted by the

Australian Plant Census The Australian Plant Census (APC) provides an online interface to currently accepted, published, scientific names of the vascular flora of Australia, as one of the output interfaces of the national government Integrated Biodiversity Information Syst ...

as at May 2021: * '' Chloanthes coccinea''

Bartl. Friedrich Gottlieb Bartling (December 9, 1798 – November 20, 1875) was a German botanist who was a native of Hanover. He studied natural sciences at the University of Göttingen, and in 1818 took a botanical journey through Hungary and Croatia ...

- Western Australia * '' Chloanthes glandulosa'' R.Br. - New South Wales * '' Chloanthes parviflora''

Walp. Wilhelm Gerhard Walpers (26 December 1816 in Mühlhausen – 18 June 1853 in Berlin) was a German botanist. This botanist is denoted by the List of botanists by author abbreviation, author abbreviation Walp. when Author citation (botany), citing a ...

- New South Wales, Queensland * '' Chloanthes stoechadis'' R.Br - New South Wales, Queensland, Western Australia

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q8345470 Lamiaceae Lamiaceae genera Endemic flora of Australia * Taxa named by Robert Brown (botanist, born 1773)