''Lachnostachys'' (common name Lambs tails)
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 n ...
of
flowering plant
Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. They include all forbs (flowering plants without a woody stem), grasses and grass-like plants, a vast majority of ...
s in the mint 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, savo ...
, first described in 1842 by
William Jackson Hooker.
The type species is ''Lachnostachys ferruginea''.
[ The genus name, ''Lachnostachys'', comes from two Greek words/roots, ''lachnề'' ("wool") and ''-stachys'' ("relating to a spike"),][Backer, C.A. (1936]
''Verklarend woordenboek der wetenschappelijke namen van de in Nederland en Nederlandsch-Indië in het wild groeiende en in tuinen en parken gekweekte varens en hoogere planten'' pp 951,956 (Edition Nicoline van der Sijs).
(Explanatory dictionary of the scientific names of .. plants grown in the Netherlands and the Dutch East Indies...) and thus describes the genus as having spiked woolly inflorescences. The entire genus 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 els ...
to Western Australia
Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to ...
[Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families]
/ref>
A 2009 study of Chloantheae[pdf]
/ref> indicates that ''Lachnostachys'' is closely related to the genera, '' Newcastelia'' and '' Physopsis'', with none of the three being monophyletic
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 ...
.
Description
Plants in this genus are shrubs or subshrub growing from 0.3 to 1.5 m high. They have no essential oils. The young stems are cylindrical and are covered in a dense and thick woolly covering of branched woolly intertwined hairs. The leaves are opposite and decussate (i.e., with successive opposite pairs at right angles to the preceding pair). The leaf blades are entire, or recurved along the margins, or sometimes flat. They are pinnately veined. They are woolly both abaxially and adaxially, although mature leaf blades are sometimes rugose (wrinkled) and glabrescent (becoming hairless). The leaves have both simple and complex hairs (which are stellate).[
#'' Lachnostachys albicans'' Hook.
#'' Lachnostachys bracteosa'' C.A.Gardner
#'' Lachnostachys coolgardiensis'' S.Moore
#'' Lachnostachys eriobotrya'' (F.Muell.) Druce
#'' Lachnostachys ferruginea'' Hook.
#'' Lachnostachys verbascifolia'' F.Muell
]
References
External links
*
{{Taxonbar, from=Q9019771
Lamiaceae genera
Endemic flora of Western Australia
Taxa named by William Jackson Hooker
Plants described in 1842