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Verbenaceae (Natural order of herbs shrubs)

A natural order of herbs, shrubs, or trees, broadly dispersed over the warmer parts of the globe, and particularly abundant in South temperate regions. Flowers hermaphrodite or rarely, by abortion, polygamous, variously disposed; calyx inferior, persistent, the tube campanulate, tubular, or rarely almost obsolete, the teeth, lobes, or segments five, four, or rarely six to eight, or obsolete; corolla gamopetalous, the tube often incurved, the limb four or five-cleft, rarely multifid, the lobes equal or more or less bilabiate; perfect stamens four, didynamous, or two, or in a few genera as many as the corolla lobes; filaments inappendiculate; anthers two-celled; bracts variable, often small. Fruit more or less drupaceous or sub-capsular. Leaves generally opposite or whorled, entire, toothed, or incised-multifid, in one genus pinnate, in another digitately compound; stipules absent. Teak, one of the most important timbers in the world, is the wood of Tectona grandis. Lippia citriodora, and several species of Lantana, are used as tea. The order embraces fifty-nine genera, and nearly 700 species. Well-known examples are: Clerodendron, Lantana Verbena, and Vitex.