Biology:Teucrium

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Short description: Genus of flowering plants

Germanders
Teucrium eremaeum - Flickr - Kevin Thiele.jpg
Teucrium eremaeum
Scientific classification e
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Lamiales
Family: Lamiaceae
Subfamily: Ajugoideae
Genus: Teucrium
L. (1753)
Type species
Teucrium fruticans
L.
Species

See List of Teucrium species

Synonyms[1]

Teucrium is a cosmopolitan genus of flowering plants in the family Lamiaceae, commonly known as germanders.[2] Plants in this genus are perennial herbs or shrubs, with branches that are more or less square in cross-section, leaves arranged in opposite pairs, and flowers arranged in thyrses, the corolla with mostly white to cream-coloured, lobed petals.

Description

Plants in the genus Teucrium are perennial herbs or shrubs with four-cornered stems, often with simple hairs and sessile glands. The leaves are arranged in opposite pairs, simple or with three leaflets sometimes with lobed or serrated edges. The flowers are arranged in a thyrse, sometimes in a cyme in leaf axils. The flowers have five more or less similar sepals fused at the base, and the corolla is white or cream-coloured with five lobes forming two lips. The upper lip is usually much reduced in size and the lower lip has three lobes, the central lobe usually larger than the side lobes. There are four stamens attached near the base of the petals and the fruit is a schizocarp with four segments.[3][4][5][6][7]

Taxonomy

The genus Teucrium was first formally described in 1753 by Carl Linnaeus in Species Plantarum.[8][9] The name Teucrium was used by Pedanius Dioscorides for several species in this genus, and is believed to refer to King Teucer of Troy who used the plant in his medicine.[10][11]

Species

(See List of Teucrium species)

Scurfy germander (T. albicaule)
Teucrium capitatum
Tree germander (T. fruticans)

Teucrium is a cosmopolitan genus with about 300 species, the distribution centred on the Mediterranean. There are about thirteen species endemic to Australia.[4][5]

Fossil record

Teucrium tatjanae seed fossils are known from the Oligocene, Miocene and Pliocene of western Siberia, Miocene and Pliocene of central and southern Russia and Miocene of Lusatia. The fossil seeds are similar to seeds of the extant Teucrium orientale.[12]Teucrium pripiatense seed fossils have been described from the Pliocene Borsoni Formation in the Rhön Mountains of central Germany .[13]

References

  1. "Teucrium L.". Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. 2022. https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:30039259-2. 
  2. "Teucrium". Natural Resources Conservation Service PLANTS Database. USDA. https://plants.usda.gov/core/profile?symbol=TEUCR. 
  3. "Teucrium". Flora of China. http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=2&taxon_id=132670. 
  4. 4.0 4.1 Conn, Barry J.. "Teucrium". Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria. https://vicflora.rbg.vic.gov.au/flora/taxon/6daccecc-dcdc-4309-803c-4352452b6519. 
  5. 5.0 5.1 Conn, Barry J.. "Genus Teucrium". Royal Botanic Garden Sydney. https://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&showsyn=&dist=&constat=&lvl=gn&name=Teucrium. 
  6. "Teucrium". State Herbarium of South Australia. http://www.flora.sa.gov.au/cgi-bin/speciesfacts_display.cgi?form=speciesfacts&name=Teucrium. 
  7. "Teucrium". FloraBase. Western Australian Government Department of Parks and Wildlife. https://florabase.dpaw.wa.gov.au/browse/profile/22027. 
  8. "Teucrium". APNI. https://id.biodiversity.org.au/instance/apni/486667. 
  9. Linnaeus, Carl (1753). Species Plantarum. p. 562. https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/13830#page/4/mode/1up. Retrieved 4 March 2021. 
  10. Sharr, Francis Aubi; George, Alex (2019). Western Australian Plant Names and Their Meanings (3rd ed.). Kardinya, WA: Four Gables Press. p. 117. ISBN 9780958034180. 
  11. Grieve, Maude (1971). A Modern Herbal. Courier Dover Publications. p. 351. ISBN 978-0-486-22798-6. 
  12. The Pliocene flora of Kholmech, south-eastern Belarus and its correlation with other Pliocene floras of Europe by Felix Yu. VELICHKEVICH and Ewa ZASTAWNIAK - Acta Palaeobot. 43(2): 137–259, 2003
  13. The floral change in the tertiary of the Rhön mountains (Germany) by Dieter Hans Mai - Acta Paleobotanica 47(1): 135-143, 2007.

External links

Wikidata ☰ Q157714 entry