Description: Annual herbs.
Leaves opposite, sessile.
Flowers in terminal spike-like racemes, subtended by leaf-like bracts; bracteoles absent. Calyx broadly cup-shaped, the 4 teeth separated by 2 long median clefts and 2 very short lateral clefts. Corolla 2-lipped, the upper lip hood-like, emarginate, the lower longer and broader than the upper, 3-lobed. Stamens 4, in pairs of unequal length, held in a U-configuration under the hooded upper corolla lip, the anthers non-glandular-hairy, with the 2 loculi of each equally awned at the base, shedding pollen introrsely by an attenuated pore located above the awn. Stigma clavate.
Capsule loculicidal; seeds numerous, longitudinally coarsely ribbed, not winged, with finer transverse ribs between, with a basal hilum.
Distribution and occurrence: World: 49 species, chiefly South America, also North America, Europe & tropical Africa. Australia: 1 species (naturalized).
Text by W. R. Barker
Taxon concept:
| One species in NSW: Bartsia trixago |
|
