Stachytarpheta Vahl (1804: 205)

Cardoso, Pedro Henrique, Valério, Vanessa Imaculada Dos Reis, Neto, Luiz Menini & Salimena, Fátima Regina Gonçalves, 2021, Verbenaceae in Espírito Santo, Brazil: richness, patterns of geographic distribution and conservation, Phytotaxa 484 (1), pp. 1-43 : 29

10. Stachytarpheta Vahl (1804: 205) .

Herbs or shrubs, monoecious, branches without prickles, not aromatic. Leaves sessile or petiolate, glands near to the petiole absent. Inflorescences terminal, simple, racemes spiciform, multiflorous, rachis elongated; bracts membranaceous, green; bracteoles absent. Flowers sessile; calyx tubular, shorter than the corolla, immersed or not in the depressions of the rachis, membranaceous, green, 2‒4-toothed, persistent, accrescent in fruit; corolla zygomorphic, 5-lobed; stamens 2, staminodes 2, included, connective appendages absent, thecae divergent; ovary 1-carpelate, 2- loculate, ovules 1 per locle, stigma capitate. Fruit schizocarp, with 2 cluses, brown, external surface reticulate.

Stachytarpheta is part of the tribe Duranteae ( Marx et al. 2010) and presents approximately 120 species distributed throughout the Americas, Asia, Africa, and Oceania, with great diversity concentrated in Brazil ( Atkins 2005, Cardoso et al. in press.). This is a monophyletic genus, characterized by the presence of the androecium with two fertile stamens and two staminodes ( Marx et al. 2010). There are 82 species recorded in Brazil, of which 75 are endemic, with most of the richness concentrated in Cerrado ( Cardoso & Salimena 2020c). Seventeen species were recorded in the Atlantic Forest, of which six are found in Espírito Santo.