Herbs or shrubs. Leaves opposite or alternate, simple. Inflorescence an elongated terminal bracteate spike. Flowers sessile, crowded, each flower sunk into an hollow in the rhachis. Corolla blue, purple, red or white, funnel- or salver-shaped, 5-lobed. Fertile stamens 2. Ovary 2-locular. Fruit included within the persistent calyx, splitting into 2 mericarps, these shortly beaked, striate on the back and usually pitted near the apex. Derivation of name: from the Greek: stachys, a spike, and tarpheios, thick, referring to the thick spikes of this genus. Worldwide: 65 species, mostly in tropical and warm America; a few in the Old World. Zimbabwe: 3 taxa. |
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