Description: Annual herb, glabrous; branches terete.
Leaves opposite, margins coarsely toothed to lobed; petiolate.
Inflorescence axillary in upper leaf axils, usually few flowers clusters. Sepals fused into a slightly zygomorphic broad funnel-shaped tube, glabrous; lobes mucronate. Corolla 2-lipped; lower lip with 2 narrow lateral lobes and a broad spathulate median lobe; upper lip oblong, hooded, slightly 2-lobed. Stamens 4 fertile, inserted in the throat of the corolla tube; anthers with 2 fertile loculi, diverging to c. 90deg from the attachment of the filaments, enclosed in a hood of the upper lip.
Fruit often dispersed still retained in the persistent calyx; mericarps 3-keeled.
Distribution and occurrence: World: 4 species, Mediterranean region to NW India. Australia: 1 species (naturalized).
Text by B. J. Conn
Taxon concept:
| One species in NSW: Moluccella laevis |
|
