Verbena Linnaeus (1753: 18)

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 : 34

11. Verbena Linnaeus (1753: 18) .

Herbs, monoecious, branches without prickles, not aromatic. Leaves sessile, glands absent in the base of the leaf blade. Inflorescences terminal, compound, racemes spiciform; rachis elongated; bracts membranaceous, green; bracteoles absent. Flowers sessile; calyx tubular, shorter than the corolla, membranaceous, green, 5-lobed, accrescent in fruit; corolla zygomorphic, 5-lobed; stamens 4, included, didynamous, connective appendages absent, thecae parallel; ovary 2-carpel, 4-locular, ovules 1 per locule, style shorter than three times the length of the ovary, stigma 2-lobed. Fruit schizocarp, with 4 cluses, brown, external surface reticulate.

Verbena is part of the tribe Verbeneae ( Marx et al. 2010) and has approximately 55 species distributed in the Americas, Europa, Ásia, North of Africa, and Australia, with diversity center in South of Brazil and Northwest of Argentina (O’Leary et al. 2010, Cardoso et al. in press.). There are 16 species recorded for Brazil, of which 15 occur in the Atlantic Forest (O’Leary 2020). Previous studies cite for Espírito Santo the occurrence of V. lindbergii ( BFG 2015, Dutra et al. 2015, O’Leary 2020), which was not found in any scientific collection of the state, and therefore, its distribution record has not been confirmed. In this study, two species were recorded for Espírito Santo, V. litoralis and V. rigida .