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Key to Verbenaceae

Verbenaceae

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1 Plants woody (shrubs, small trees or lianas); fruits fleshy or drupes enclosed within a hardened calyx.
  2 Plants lianas; fruit a drupe enclosed wtihin a persistent hardened calyx; [waif, FL]
  2 Plants shrubs or trees; fruits fleshy; [collectively widespread, native and non-native]
    3 Inflorescence a drooping raceme; [tribe Citharexyleae]
      4 Leaf margins entire; flowers white or whitish
      4 Leaf margins serrate (sometimes minutely so, rarely entire); flowers violet
    3 Inflorescence an erect head or spike; [tribe Lantaneae]
1 Plants herbs (except subshrubs in Lippia); fruits dry.
        5 Flowers and fruits embedded in a thickened, somewhat fleshy rachis
        5 Flowers and fruits not embedded in a thickened, somewhat fleshy rachis.
          6 Flowers borne on short pedicels; fruiting calyx inflated and densely uncinate-hispidulous; [rare native, s. FL]
          6 Flowers sessile; fruiting calyx not inflated nor uncinate; [widespread natives and non-natives].
             7 Inflorescence axillary (the stems of inflorescence arising from axils of main stem); [tribe Lantaneae].
               8 Stems woody to suffrutescent, trailing and sometimes re-rooting; hairs simple
               8 Stems herbaceous, rooting; hairs branched
             7 Inflorescence terminal (arising from top of main stem); [tribe Verbeneae].
                 9 Styles > 6 mm long; calyx 8-10 mm long, longer than the fruit; corolla salverform
                 9 Styles < 3 mm long; calyx 2-4 mm long, often shorter than the fruit; corolla funnelform

Key S3: herbaceous dicots with opposite, simple, and pinnately lobed leaves on the stem

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1 Inflorescence an involucrate head subtended by phyllaries, the heads solitary or many and variously arrayed in secondary inflorescences, the ovary inferior, the corolla connate and tubular at least basally, the calyx absent, the stamens 5, the fruit a cypsela
1 Inflorescence, flower, and fruit structure various, but not with the combination of features as above (sometimes the flowers tightly grouped, but then with other features differing, such as stamens 4, or green calyx present, or fruit a schizocarp of mericarps, etc.).
  2 Flowers tiny, individually inconspicuous; perianth absent or vestigial; fruit a utricle
  2 Flowers larger, individually conspicuous; perianth present, the petals or sepals brightly colored; fruit a capsule (or aggregate of achenes in Clematis in RANUNCULACEAE or schizocarp of 4 mericarps in Glandularia in VERBENACEAE).
    3 Flowers radially symmetrical; stamens 5 or many; fruit a capsule or aggregate of achenes.
      4 Stamens 5; fruit a capsule
      4 Stamens many; fruit an aggregate of plumose achenes
    3 Flowers bilaterally symmetrical (sometimes only slightly so); stamens 4 (or 2 in Veronica in PLANTAGINACEAE); fruit a capsule or schizocarp of mericarps.
        5 Inflorescence of cymosely arranged spikes or heads; fruit a schizocarp of 4 nutlets
        5 Inflorescence of solitary axillary flowers or terminal racemes.
          6 Corolla yellow, orange, or red; plants often drying black (but not Striga); sepals connate into a tube at least 1/3 as long as the corolla lobes; calyx 5-merous
          6 Corolla white, pink, lavender, or blue; plants not drying black; sepals distinct or only shortly connate into a short tube, the calyx lobes much longer than the tube; calyx 5- or 4-merous