Description: Perennial herb; branches 4-angular; hairs simple, often glandular.
Leaves opposite, lamina coarsely toothed, petiolate.
Inflorescence terminal, consisting of widely spaced flower clusters, or appearing axillary with flowers confined to upper leaf axils. Bracts leaf-like, longer than the part inflorescences. Sepals unequally fused, 2-lipped; lower lobe deeply 2-lobed; upper lip with 3 broad lobes. Corolla 2-lipped; lower lip broad-oblong with 2 lateral lobes and scarcely longer central one; upper lip short and broad, 2-lobed. Anthers with 2 fertile loculi, strongly divergent so that they lie above one another in a vertical line, exserted. Ovary 4-lobed; style gynobasic; stigma 2-fid.
Mericarps not keeled.
Distribution and occurrence: World: 3 species, Europe to C Asia. Australia: 1 species (naturalized).
Text by B. J. Conn
Taxon concept:
| One species in NSW: Melissa officinalis |
|
