Citation: L., Sp. Pl. 626 (1753).

Derivation: Latin lento, to bend; one of the ancient names of Viburnum.

Synonymy: Not Applicable

Common name: None

Description:
Erect or scrambling shrubs; branches 4-angled, sometimes armed with prickles; leaves usually simple, serrate-dentate, often rugose, glandular on the lower surface.

Inflorescence in dense cylindrical spikes or contracted to form heads, usually axillary, pedunculate, mostly quite showy; flowers sessile, bracteate; bracts tapering from a broad base, acute; calyx small, membranous, truncate and entire or shallowly 2-lobed; corolla cylindrical with spreading lobes; tube narrow-cylindrical, slender, widened in the upper half, accrescent during anthesis; limb spreading, regular or obscurely 2-lipped, 4- or 5-fid, broadly

Fruit drupaceous, crowded, with exocarp usually more or less fleshy when mature, the endocarp hard, 2-celled or splitting into 2 1-loculate pyrenes; seeds without endosperm.

Distribution:  About 150 species, mostly natives of subtropical and tropical America; a few also in tropical Asia and Africa. Several species are widely cultivated under cultivar names.

Biology: Interspecific and intervarietal hybridisation is probably widespread in the genus. A few species tend to become aggressive weeds in disturbed areas. Many species give off a very characteristic strong pungent odour.

Author: Not yet available