Lippia Linnaeus (1753: 633)

Cardoso, Pedro Henrique, Valério, Vanessa Imaculada Dos Reis, Neto, Luiz Menini & Salimena, Fátima Regina Gonçalves, 2021, Verbenaceae in Espírito Santo, Brazil: richness, patterns of geographic distribution and conservation, Phytotaxa 484 (1), pp. 1-43 : 20

7. Lippia Linnaeus (1753: 633) .

Shrubs or subshrubs, monoecious, branches without prickles, aromatic. Leaves petiolate, glands near to the petiole absent. Inflorescences axillary, simple, racemes capituliform, compact, multiflorous, rachis elongated or not in fructification;; bracts chartaceous, green, bracteoles absent. Flowers sessile; calyx tubular, shorter than the corolla, membranaceous, green, 2-lobed, accrescent in fruit; corolla zygomorphic, 5-lobed, 2-labiate; stamens 4, included, didynamous, superior pair without connective appendages, thecae parallel; ovary 1-carpelate, 2-loculate, ovules 1 per locule, stigma oblique. Fruit a schizocarp, with 2 cluses or a drupe with 2 pyrenes, brown, external surface smooth.

Lippia is part of the tribe Lantaneae ( Marx et al. 2010) and has 140 species distributed throughout the tropical and subtropical America, with a few representatives in the east of Africa ( Marx et al. 2010, O’Leary et al. 2012b, Cardoso et al. in press.). The genus is characterized by the presence of branches without prickles; green or colored bracts; 2- labiate corolla and fruit splitting into 2 cluses or 2 pyrenes when mature ( Silva & Salimena 2002). There are 87 species recorded in Brazil, of which 63 are endemic, with the diversity center in the Cerrado (64 spp.) ( Salimena & Cardoso 2020). Forty species occur in the Atlantic Forest ( Salimena & Cardoso 2020), of which four are recorded in Espírito Santo.