Teucrium

{{Short description|Genus of flowering plants}} {{Automatic taxobox |name = Germanders |image = Teucrium eremaeum - Flickr - Kevin Thiele.jpg |image_caption = ''Teucrium eremaeum'' |taxon = Teucrium |authority = L. (1753) |type_species = ''Teucrium fruticans'' |type_species_authority = L. |subdivision_ranks = Species |subdivision = See List of ''Teucrium'' species |synonyms_ref=<ref name=POWO>{{cite web |url=https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:30039259-2 |title=''Teucrium'' L. |date=2022 |website=Plants of the World Online |publisher=Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew|access-date=5 December 2022}}</ref> |synonyms = {{collapsible list| *''Botrys'' Fourr. *''Chamaedrys'' Mill. *''Iva'' Fabr. nom. illeg. *''Kinostemon'' Kudô *''Melosmon'' Raf. *''Monipsis'' Raf. *''Monochilon'' Dulac *''Oncinocalyx'' F.Muell. *''Poliodendron'' Webb & Berthel. *''Polium'' Mill. *''Scorbion'' Raf. *''Scordium'' Mill. *''Scorodonia'' Hill *''Spartothamnella'' Briq. *''Spartothamnus'' A.Cunn. ex Walp. *''Teucridium'' Hook.f. *''Trixago'' Raf. }} }}

'''''Teucrium''''' is a cosmopolitan genus of flowering plants in the mint family Lamiaceae, commonly known as '''germanders'''.<ref>{{PLANTS|id=TEUCR|taxon=Teucrium|access-date=9 December 2015}}</ref> Plants in this genus are perennial herbs or shrubs, with branches that are more or less square in cross-section, leaves arranged in opposite pairs, and flowers arranged in thyrses, the corolla with mostly white to cream-coloured, lobed petals.

==Description== Plants in the genus ''Teucrium'' are perennial herbs or shrubs with four-cornered stems, often with simple hairs and sessile glands. The leaves are arranged in opposite pairs, simple or with three leaflets sometimes with lobed or serrated edges. The flowers are arranged in a thyrse, sometimes in a cyme in leaf axils. The flowers have five more or less similar sepals fused at the base, and the corolla is white or cream-coloured with five lobes forming two lips. The upper lip is usually much reduced in size and the lower lip has three lobes, the central lobe usually larger than the side lobes. There are four stamens attached near the base of the petals and the fruit is a schizocarp with four segments.<ref name="efloras">{{cite web |title=''Teucrium'' |url=http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=2&taxon_id=132670 |publisher=Flora of China |access-date=4 March 2021}}</ref><ref name="RBGV">{{cite web |last1=Conn |first1=Barry J. |title=''Teucrium'' |url=https://vicflora.rbg.vic.gov.au/flora/taxon/6daccecc-dcdc-4309-803c-4352452b6519 |publisher=Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria |access-date=4 March 2021}}</ref><ref name="RBGS">{{cite web |last1=Conn |first1=Barry J. |title=Genus ''Teucrium'' |url=https://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&showsyn=&dist=&constat=&lvl=gn&name=Teucrium |publisher=Royal Botanic Garden Sydney |access-date=4 March 2021}}</ref><ref name="efloraSA">{{cite web |title=''Teucrium'' |url=http://www.flora.sa.gov.au/cgi-bin/speciesfacts_display.cgi?form=speciesfacts&name=Teucrium |publisher=State Herbarium of South Australia |access-date=4 March 2021}}</ref><ref name=FloraBase>{{FloraBase | name = ''Teucrium'' | id = 22027}}</ref>

==Taxonomy== The genus ''Teucrium'' was first formally described in 1753 by Carl Linnaeus in ''Species Plantarum''.<ref name=APNI>{{cite web|title=''Teucrium''|url= https://id.biodiversity.org.au/instance/apni/486667|publisher=APNI|access-date=4 March 2021}}</ref><ref name="L.">{{cite book |last1=Linnaeus |first1=Carl |title=Species Plantarum |date=1753 |page=562 |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/13830#page/4/mode/1up |access-date=4 March 2021}}</ref> The name ''Teucrium'' was used by Pedanius Dioscorides for several species in this genus, and is believed to refer to King Teucer of Troy who used the plant in his medicine.<ref name="Sharr">{{cite book |last1=Sharr |first1=Francis Aubi |last2=George |first2=Alex |title=Western Australian Plant Names and Their Meanings |date=2019 |publisher=Four Gables Press |location=Kardinya, WA |isbn=9780958034180 |page=117|edition=3rd}}</ref><ref name="Grieve">{{cite book |first=Maude |last=Grieve |title=A Modern Herbal |publisher=Courier Dover Publications |year=1971 |isbn=978-0-486-22798-6 |page=351}}</ref>

''Teucrium'' is a cosmopolitan genus with about 300 species, the distribution centred on the Mediterranean. There are about thirteen species endemic to Australia.<ref name="RBGV" /><ref name="RBGS" />

==Fossil record== †'''''Teucrium tatjanae''''' seed fossils are known from the Oligocene, Miocene and Pliocene of western Siberia, Miocene and Pliocene of central and southern Russia and Miocene of Lusatia. The fossil seeds are similar to seeds of the extant ''Teucrium orientale''.<ref>The Pliocene flora of Kholmech, south-eastern Belarus and its correlation with other Pliocene floras of Europe by Felix Yu. VELICHKEVICH and Ewa ZASTAWNIAK - Acta Palaeobot. 43(2): 137–259, 2003</ref> †'''''Teucrium pripiatense''''' seed fossils have been described from the Pliocene Borsoni Formation in the Rhön Mountains of central Germany.<ref>The floral change in the tertiary of the Rhön mountains (Germany) by Dieter Hans Mai - Acta Paleobotanica 47(1): 135-143, 2007.</ref>

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== {{NIE Poster|Germander|year=1906}} * [https://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=TEUCR USDA PLANTS Profile]

* Category:Lamiaceae genera Category:Botanical taxa named by Carl Linnaeus