Description: Perennial herb; branches 4-angular; hairs mostly simple.
Leaves opposite, petiolate; margins coarsely toothed to crenate, or rarely lobed.
Inflorescence terminal, often with basal flower-clusters in upper leaf axils, distally compact and spike-like, usually with 20–30 flowers per node. Sepals ± equally fused, with 5 pointed lobes. Corolla 2-lipped; lower lip with 2 narrow lateral lobes and a broad-spathulate medial lobe; upper lip broad-oblong, 2-lobed. Stamens 4, fertile, inserted at different levels at and above the throat of the corolla tube; anthers with 2 fertile loculi that diverge to about 80deg from the attachment of the filaments, exserted.
Mericarps 1-keeled.
Distribution and occurrence: World: c. 250 species, temperate Eurasia, extending to mountains of tropical Africa. Australia: 1 species (naturalized).
Text by B. J. Conn
Taxon concept:
| One species in NSW: Nepeta cataria |
|
