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Plectranthus verticillatus [family LAMIACEAE]

Date Updated: 19 August 2007

Herbarium
South African National Biodiversity Institute, Compton Herbarium, Cape Town (SAM)
Collection
Flora of Southern Africa
Resource Type
Reference Sources
Entry From
Flora of South Africa, (2003) Author: Dr J.P. Roux
Names
Plectranthus verticillatus [family LAMIACEAE]
Common names
Ocimum verticillatum L. f., Suppl. 276 (1781), as "Ocymum"; Willd., Sp. PI. 3: 163 (1800). P. thunbergii Benth., Lab. 37 (1832); in E. Mey., Comm. 229 (1837); Drege, Zwei Pfl. Doc. 125, 147 (1843); Benth. in DC, Prodr. 12: 67 (1848); Schinz in Mem. Herb. Boissier 10: 60 (1895); Cooke in F.C. 5,1: 280 (1910); Codd in Mitt. bot. StSamml., Munch. 10: 247 (1971); nom. illegit. Type: as above. O. racemosum Thunb., Prodr. 2: 96 (1800), as "Ocymum"; Fl. Cap. edn Schult. 448 (1812). Type: Cape, "Houteniquas", Thunberg s.n. (UPS, holo.!; SBT!). P. nummularius Briq. in Bull. Herb. Boissier ser. 2, 3: 1072 (1903); Cooke, I.e. 284 (1910), partly; Letty, Wild Flow. Transv. 289, t.144: 2 (1962); Compton, Check-list Fl. Swaziland 67, 158 (1966); Codd, I.e. 247 (1971); Ross, I.e. 305 (1972). Type: Natal, Camper-down, Rehmann 7702 (Z, holo.!).
Information
Perennial semi-succulent herb; stems procumbent to ascending, branching, up to 1,2 m long, often rising to 0,25 m above the ground, glabrous to shortly pubescent. Leaves petiolate; blade softly to distinctly succulent, ovate to rotund, 16-40 x 12-40 mm, subglabrous to pubescent, under-surface with red to brownish gland-dots, apex acute to rounded, base truncate to cuneate, margin crenate-dentate to shallow-ly crenate with 3—6 pairs of teeth; petiole 6—30 mm long. Inflorescence simple or with a pair of branches near the base, racemes 40-220 mm long (usually about 100-150 mm); flowers in sessile 1—3-flowered cymes forming 2—6-flowered verticils about 6—15 mm apart; bracts persisting beyond flower­ing stage. Calyx up to 7 mm long in fruiting stage, erect, not gibbous at the base; uppermost tooth erect, ovate, acute; 4 lower teeth spreading, linear-subulate, the lower pair the longer. Corolla white to pale mauve with a few mauve spots on the upper lip or freely speckled with purplish spots, 9—25 mm long; tube deflexed and expanded to a slightly saccate base, scarcely narrowing to the throat; upper lip 5—8 mm long; lower lip shallowly
Habitat
There is a good deal of variation in leaf shape and pubescence and in flower colour but it has not been possible to subdivide the material into meaningful infraspecific groups. The typical form of the eastern Cape has small ovate leaves, somewhat cuneate at the base with crenate-dentate margins, and the flowers are whitish with a few pale mauve markings on the upper lip. This grades into the Natal and Transvaal form in which the leaves are somewhat larger, glabrous or pubescent and rounded with shallowly crenate margins, and the flowers are slightly larger with freely speckled corolla. Some forms of the latter are often cultivated as ground covers or pot plants. The typification of P. verticillatus is discussed in Bothalia 11: 408 (1975).
Use
22. Plectranthus verticillatus (L.f.) Druce in Rep. botl Soc. Exch. Club Br. Isl. 1916: 640 (1917); Ross, Fl. Natal 305 (1972); Codd in Bothalia 11: 407 (1975); Compton, Fl. Swaziland 504 (1976). Type: erroneously recorded as coming from India but probably a Thunberg specimen from the Cape (LINN 749.4, iso.).
Range
Distributed from about Knysna through the semi-coastal parts of the eastern Cape Province, Transkei and Natal to Swaziland, eastern and northern Transvaal; also in southern Mozambique. Usually in fairly moist, stony places in forest margins, scrub forest and dry woodland. Map 84.
Plectranthus verticillatus [family LAMIACEAE]
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