Morphology of the inflorescence in Verbenaceae-Verbenoideae III. * Tribe Lantaneae p.p.

Abstract

In this contribution, the tribe Lantaneae is considered in a broad sense. The morphology and typology of inflorescences in  Lantana,  Neosparton,  Xeroaloysia,  Acantholippia,  Aloysia,  Phyla, Bouchea, Chascanum, Stachytarpheta, Lampaya and Diostea are analyzed; Lippia has been treated in a previous paper. Inflorescences in Lantaneae belong to the polytelic type. Florescences are, in most species, spikes or sometimes spike-like racemes, varying in arrangement, spacing and number of flowers. Floral bracteoles are only present in  Bouchea and  Chascanum Sect. Chascanum. The most frequent pattern of the compound inflorescence is a homothetic (di) pleiobotryum with specialized long and short paracladia. This pattern, characteristic of Lantana, Phyla and Xeroaloysia, is also present in most species of Aloysia and one species of  Acantholippia. Two Aloysia species have a paniculiform heterothetic pleiobotryum. Bouchea, Chascanum and Stachytarpheta have similar inflorescence. Most of their species inflorescences are dichasially ramified heterothetic pleiobotrya. Neosparton, Lampaya, Diostea and  Acantholippia generally have monobotrya, which it could be interpreted as a result of reductive tendency related to the xeromorfic syndrome of these genera. The results of this study are compared with several taxonomic systems proposed for the Tribe Lantaneae.