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Electronic Flora of South Australia
Electronic Flora of South Australia
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Electronic Flora of South Australia genus Fact Sheet

Family: Lamiaceae
Prunella

Citation: L., Sp. Pl. 600 (1753).

Derivation: Brunella or prunella was the name given in medieval Latin to the disease, quinzy, and is probably a translation of the German name, Bräune;, P. vulgaris, the plant supposed to cure it was called by the old herbalists herba brunellae.

Synonymy: Not Applicable

Common name: None

Description:
Perennial herbs with quadrangular branches, with simple hairs; leaves petiolate, opposite, serrate to entire.

Inflorescence a dense thyrse with sessile dichasia hidden by broad sessile bracts without internodes visible between them; sepals 2-lipped, with a posterior lip with 3 sharp teeth and an anterior lip deeply 2-lobed, covered with a few simple hairs; corolla 2-lipped, with the posterior lip broadly oblong, shallowly 2-lobed, with the anterior lip spathulate, with 2 narrow lateral lobes and a broadly spathulate central one; stamens 4 fertile, inserted at different levels above the middle of the corolla tube; filaments glabrous; anthers with 2 cells fertile, with a terminal appendage, exserted; ovary deeply 4-lobed with each locule with one basal ovule, with a gynobasic style and a terminal 2-fid stigma.

Fruit usually with 4 mericarps each oblong-obovoid, without a keel inside, with 4 vertical ridges at 90º intervals, with the attachment scar small with a white protruberance.

Distribution:  7 species of temperate Eurasia, North America and into north-west Africa; 1 species usually regarded as native and 1 species naturalised in Australia.

Biology: No text

Author: Not yet available


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