Habit:
Herb, shrub or a tree. Some plants may be climbers as Vitex and Clerodendron.
Root:
Tap root system.
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Stem:
Herbaceous or woody, erect or creeping, cylindrical or angular, glabrous, hairy, branched and solid.
Leaves:
Opposite, whorled, petiolate, or sub- sessile, exstipulate, generally simple, rarely compound. Leaves have serrate or crenate margin and the leaf blade is pubescent with unicostate reticulate venation.
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Inflorescence:
Cylindrical spikes, axillary heads, corymbose spike, dichotomous cyme forming terminal panicles in Tectona, axillary panicles or corymbs in vitex, axillary cymes, terminal raceme in Duranta and terminal spike in Stachytarpheta.
Flower:
Sessile or pedicellate, generally bracteate, hermaphrodite, zygomorphic, hypogynous and complete.
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Calyx:
Sepals generally 5, gamosepalous, lobes variable, 2-lipped and ribbed in Verbessa.
Corolla:
5 petals, gamopetalous, usually unequal in size, may be tubular, campanulate, bilipped in most of the cases, caducous in Petrea, falls of as a calyptra as the fruit ripens in case of Lippia.
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Androecium stamens usually 4, polyandrous, didynamous, occassionally all the 5 stamens are present in Tactona and Verbascum, rarely stamens are only 2 as in Oxera.
Gynoecium:
Bicarpellary (4,5 or more carpels in Duranta), syncarpous, superior ovary, 2 to 4 locular, ovules variable, attached in axile placentation.
Fruit:
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Drupe in Lantana, Tectona and Clerodendron. Capsule in Caryopteris. Berry in Duranta.
Pollination:
Entomophilous generally.
Economic Importance:
ADVERTISEMENTS:
Verbena, Lantana, Clerodendron, Caryopteris wallichiana, Duranta plumieri, Petrea are all ornamental plants. Tectona grandis is the teak tree of high economic value which is cultivated for its extremely fine wood. Gmelina arborea is not a common tree but is cultivated in gardens for ornamental purposes. The wood is similar to teak but more soft. It last well under water.
Systemic Position:
Angiospermae
Dicotyledons
Gamopetalae
Bicarpellate
Verbenales
Verbenaceae.