Labiatae

Labiatae

[‚lā·bē′ā‚tē]

(botany)

A large family of dicotyledonous plants in the order Lamiales; members are typically aromatic and usually herbaceous or merely shrubby.

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Labiatae

 

or Lamiaceae, a family of dicotyledonous plants. They may be herbs, undershrubs, shrubs, and rarely lianas or small trees. The leaves are opposite or verticillate, simple, and without stipules. The flowers are in blossom clusters (only occasionally single) and as a rule are bisexual and irregular. The calyx is gamophyllous, with five petals and five serrations, or bilabiate, and with an expressed tube. The corolla is gamopetalous and for the most part bilabiate. There are four stamens (in two pairs), or more rarely two. The gynoecium is made up of two carpels; the gynoecium is superior and has four sections or four lobes; the fruit usually separates into four monospermous nutlike parts.

There are about 200 genera (3,500 species), which are found everywhere, especially in the Mediterranean area and in Southwest and Middle Asia. In the USSR there are 69 genera, represented by almost 1,000 species. Many Labiatae are rich in volatile oils; they are used in the perfume industry (for example, lavender and rosemary), in medicine (motherwort, mint, and basil), and sometimes in food, chiefly as condiments (marjoram and basil). Lallemantias and Perillas are cultivated for the production of industrial fatty oils. Many Labiatae are good producers of nectar.

REFERENCES

“Gubotsvetnye.” In Flora SSSR,vols. 20–21. Moscow-Leningrad, 1954.
Takhtadzhian, A. L. Sistema i filogeniia tsvetkovykh rastenii. Moscow-Leningrad, 1966.
Melchior, H. “Tubiflorae.” In A. Engler,Syllabus der Pflanzenfamilien, 12th ed., vol. 2. Berlin, 1964.

M. E. KIRPICHNIKOV

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.