Common Name: MINT FAMILY
Habit: Annual to shrub [tree, vine], glabrous to hairy, generally aromatic. Stem: generally erect, generally 4-angled. Leaf: generally simple to deeply lobed, generally opposite, generally gland-dotted. Inflorescence: generally cymes, generally many in dense axillary clusters surrounding stem, generally separated by evident internodes or collectively crowded, spike- or panicle-like, occasionally head-like or raceme, subtended by leaves or bracts; flowers sessile or pedicelled. Flower: generally bisexual; calyx generally 5-lobed, radial to bilateral; corolla generally bilateral, 1--2-lipped, upper lip entire or 2-lobed, +- flat to hood-like, occasionally 0, lower lip generally 3-lobed; stamens generally 4, epipetalous, generally exserted, paired, pairs generally unequal, occasionally 2, staminodes 2 or 0; ovary superior, generally 4-lobed to base chambers 2, ovules 2 per chamber, style 1, generally arising from center at junction of lobes, stigmas generally 2. Fruit: generally 4 nutlets, generally ovoid to oblong, smooth.
Genera In Family: +- 230 genera, 7200 species: worldwide. Many cultivated for herbs, oils (Lavandula, lavender; Mentha, mint; Rosmarinus, rosemary; Thymus, thyme), some cultivated as ornamental (in California Cedronella, Leonotis, Monarda, Phlomis). Note: Moluccella laevis L., shell flower, historical waif in California. Satureja calamintha (L.) Scheele subsp. ascendens (Jordan) Briq. reported as alien but not naturalized. Salazaria moved to Scutellaria; California Hyptis moved to Condea, California Satureja moved to Clinopodium.
eFlora Treatment Author: Dieter H. Wilken & Margriet Wetherwax, family description, key to genera, except as noted
Scientific Editor: Douglas H. Goldman, Bruce G. Baldwin.

Habit: Annual to shrub, +- gland-dotted, scented. Leaf: entire to serrate, margin flat or wavy; petioles 0 or present, often grading into blade. Inflorescence: flowers in compact clusters of >= 1 per main stem, these occasionally arrayed in panicles (rarely spikes); flowers 3--100 per cluster; bracts generally erect in a cup-like involucre or reflexed, reduced in size inward, leaf-like to membranous in texture, green or straw-colored to rose or purple, linear to ovate, acuminate to acute or obtuse. Flower: calyx 5-lobed; 4--25 mm; corolla white to purple or yellow to red, weakly bilateral, upper lip erect, 2-lobed, lower lip recurved, 3-lobed; stamens 4; style unequally 2-lobed.
Etymology: (Latin: small Monarda) Note: Complex; study needed; many taxa intergrade; flower cluster width and bract orientation given for pressed specimens. Leaf length including petiole, if present. M. Brunell authored Monardella follettii (in part), Monardella odoratissima (in part), Monardella palmeri, Monardella purpurea, Monardella sheltonii (in part), Monardella stebbinsii, Monardella villosa (in part).
eFlora Treatment Author: Andrew C. Sanders, Mark A. Elvin & Mark S. Brunell
Reference: Elvin & Sanders 2009 Novon 19:315--343; Epling 1925 Ann Missouri Bot Gard 12:1--106; Jepson 1943 Fl California 431--444
Unabridged Reference: Abrams 1951 Ill Fl Pac Sts V III:648--660