Casselia Nees & Martius (1823: 73)

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 : 10

3. Casselia Nees & Martius (1823: 73) .

Subshrubs, monoecious, branches without prickles, not aromatic. Leaves petiolate, glands near to the petiole absent. Inflorescences axillary, simple, racemes reduced to two flowers, rachis absent; bracts membranaceous, green; bracteoles absent. Flowers pedicellate; calyx campanulate, shorter than the corolla, membranaceous, green, 5-lobed, not accrescent in fruit; corolla zygomorphic, 5-lobed; stamens 4, included, didynamous, superior pair with glandular thickness in the connective, thecae divergent; ovary 1-carpelate, 2-loculate, ovules 1 per locule, stigma oblique, papillose. Fruit a schizocarp, with 2 cluses, brown, external surface rugose.

Casselia is part of the tribe Casselieae ( Marx et al. 2010) and presents six species endemic to Bolivia, Brazil, and Paraguay, restrict to the Cerrado and Atlantic Forest (O’Leary & Múlgura 2010, Cardoso et al. in press.). The genus is characterized by the presence of campanulate calyx and drupaceous, dry at maturity, schizocarpic not ornamented fruit, partially inserted inside the persistent calyx (O’Leary & Múlgura 2010). All six species of Casselia growin Brazil, and five of them are endemic (O’Leary & Múlgura 2010, O’Leary & Boldorini 2020). There is one species in Espírito Santo.