Description: Perennial [or annual] rhizomatous herbs, minutely gland-dotted.
Leaves opposite but often forming basal rosettes.
Flowers 1–several, alternately arranged on a scape [or in terminal racemes]; bracts and bracteoles small, sometimes absent; bracteoles alternate on the pedicel well below the calyx. Sepals 5, fused for varying lengths, finely ribbed. Corolla 2-lipped; tube symmetrical at base; upper lip pointed outwards, emarginate; lower lip longer, broad, spreading, 3-lobed, with a palate of 2 longitudinal raised ridges covered with clavate hairs. Stamens 4, didynamous; filaments without spurs; anthers of each pair joined, borne under the upper lip, with 2 confluent but widely divergent loculi separated by a distinct but incomplete septum; staminode absent. Stigma with 2 irritable broad equal flaps.
Capsule loculicidal, 2 valves entire, or possibly indehiscent; seeds many, not winged, reticulate.
Distribution and occurrence: World: 10–50 species, mainly E & South-East Asia, also New Guinea, New Zealand & Australia. Australia: 1 species (endemic).
Text by W. R. Barker
Taxon concept:
| One species in NSW: Mazus pumilio |
|
