Verbenaceae

▪ plant family

      family of plants, in the order Lamiales, a worldwide but mainly tropical grouping of 30 genera and some 1,100 species, some of which are important for their flowers. Members of the family, sometimes known as Verbena or Vervain, have opposite or whorled leaves that are usually undivided. The flowers are aggregated in spikes, clusters, or racemes and usually consist of a tube flaring into four or five almost equally cut lobes.

      The type genus, Verbena, contains some 200 to 250 species, almost all of them native to the Western Hemisphere. Outstanding among the 30 Petrea species, all tropical American, is a woody evergreen vine called purple wreath, or sandpaper vine (P. volubilis). It bears long, hanging clusters of violet-blue pansylike flowers and has oval leaves so rough as to be likened to sandpaper. The 220 species of the genus Lippia bear clusters of white, rose, or purplish flowers. L. canescens of South America is a matting ground cover with oblong leaves and small heads of yellow-throated, lilac flowers. Caryopteris, with 15 East Asian species, is exemplified by blue spirea, or bluebeard (C. incana), an oval-leaved shrub up to 1.5 metres tall with clusters of bright blue flowers in the autumn. Other tropical plants such as the Chinese hat plant (Holmskioldia sanguinea) and species of pigeon berry, or golden dewdrop (Duranta), and glory-bower (Clerodendrum) are cultivated as ornamentals. The shrub lemon verbena (Aloysia triphylla) is notable for its fragrant oil. The family also includes teak (Tectona grandis), an important timber tree of Southeast Asia (see teak).

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