Description: Perennial herbs or small shrubs.
Leaves petiolate, mostly ± ovate; apex obtuse to subacute; margins crenate to regularly toothed; base ± rounded to cordate; usually hairy.
Inflorescence with few to many flowers per leaf axil. Calyx 10-veined; ± apically expanded, undulate, or with 5–16 crenations or teeth; lobes ± mucronate or gradually narrowed into an awn, rarely entire. Corolla tube shorter than or equal to calyx, with a ring of hairs on inner surface. Stamens parallel; anther loculi divergent. Ovary deeply 4-lobed; style gynobasic; stigma subequally 2-fid.
Distribution and occurrence: World: 7 species, Europe. Australia: 1 species (naturalized).
Text by B. J. Conn
Taxon concept:
| One species in NSW: Ballota nigra |
|
