Lantana viburnoides subsp. viburnoides

Flora Zambesiaca. Vol 8, Pt 7. Avicenniaceae, R. Fernandes. Nesogenaceae, M.A. Diniz. Verbenaceae, R. Fernandes. Lamiaceae, R. Fernandes. 2005.

Morphology General Habit

Shrub 1–2 m tall or a subshrub 30–50 cm tall

Morphology Branches

Branches usually simple with internodes up to 10 cm long or sometimes internodes c. 5 mm long or less, scars of leaf bases distinctly raised; young branches hispid-pubescent with short whitish tubercle-based hairs usually curving and upwardly directed or ± appressed antrorse, usually with sessile glands intermixed; older branches somewhat woody, ± glabrescent and scabridulous

Morphology Leaves

Leaves opposite, petiolate; lamina mostly 3.8–7.5(12) × 1.5–4(5) cm, ovate or ovate-lanceolate to elliptic, somewhat tapering to an acute to subobtuse apex, rounded at the base and sometimes the middle part of the rounded base cuneate and somewhat decurrent into the petiole, crenate on the margins with broad shallow teeth, submembranous when mature becoming ± rigid when dry, concolorous to somewhat discolorous drying dark olive-green or dull green above and pale green beneath, sparsely hispidulous on upper surface with ± scattered short ± appressed tubercle-based bristles becoming ± scabridulous with the tubercle-bases persisting in older leaves, ± densely hispidulous-pubescent beneath with hairs mainly on the venation and not tubercle-based, indumentum intermixed with sessile glands; venation not or hardly impressed above or raised beneath; petiole up to c. 1 cm long, slender, merging into the decurrent base of the lamina

Morphology Reproductive morphology Inflorescences Peduncles

Peduncles 1 per leaf axil, usually erect or ascending, (1.5)2.5–13.5 cm long, hispid-pubescent with short whitish tubercle-based upwardly directed hairs

Morphology Reproductive morphology Inflorescences

Flowering spikes 0.7–1.5 × 1.1–2.3 cm, usually shorter than broad, sub-hemispheric, up to 2.4 cm long and ± cylindrical in fruit; lower bracts 6–14(15) × 5–8 mm, ovate or broadly lanceolate, acuminate-cuspidate at apex, sometimes 9–11 × 3–4 mm ± oblong; upper bracts successively smaller and ± lanceolate, acuminate-cuspidate at apex, equalling or exceeding the upper corollas at anthesis, shorter than the spikes in fruit; spike-axes 1–1.7 cm long in fruit, with ± spaced scars

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Corolla

Corolla white; tube c. 5.5 mm long, ± ventricose; lower lip c. 3.5 mm broad

Morphology Reproductive morphology Fruits

Drupes c. 2.5–3.5 × 3–3.5 mm, truncate at the top, purple-lilac.

Ecology

Miombo and mixed deciduous woodland and riverine forest, sometimes on termite mounds; 600–1500 m.

Note

This account differs from the taxonomy of Verdcourt, in F.T.E.A., Verbenaceae: 40 (1992), at infraspecific level.     subsp. viburnoides occurs in Arabia, and subsp. richardii differs from it mainly in the following characters: leaves usually broader and not as narrowly tapering to the apex; apex less acute; margins with fewer, broader teeth; lamina thinner in texture and not as stiff on drying, ± smooth and not rugose on the upper surface, and not raised reticulate beneath; peduncles usually longer than the leaf (± half as long as the leaf in the typical subsp.); bracts relatively broader (ovate-oblong or oblong-lanceolate and only 1.5–3.5 mm broad in the typical subsp.); spikes broader, and more than 1 cm in diameter. Richards 118 & 824 (both in K), from Zambia (Chilongowelo near Mbala), differ from typical subsp. richardii in having narrower bracts and shorter peduncles, and perhaps represent a hybrid between L. trifolia and L. viburnoides subsp. richardii .

Distribution

Mozambique Zambia Zimbabwe Malawi Also in Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and Angola. District code: MOZ N, ZIM E, MAL N, MOZ N, MOZ T.