| Oxera | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Oxera pulchella | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Clade: | Asterids |
| Order: | Lamiales |
| Family: | Lamiaceae |
| Subfamily: | Ajugoideae |
| Genus: | Oxera Labill. |
| Type species | |
| Oxera pulchella Labill. | |
| Synonyms [1] | |
| |
Oxera is a genus of flowering plants in the family Lamiaceae native to Vanuatu and New Caledonia in the western Pacific. [1]
Species of Oxera show a variety of growth forms, including lianas, shrubs and trees. [2] [3] The leaves are simple, and are petiolate (on short stalks), except in O. sessilifolia , [2] [3] with entire or occasionally sinuate (wavy) edges. [3]
The inflorescences are loose thyrses of flowers, growing from leaf axils (axillary) or directly from the stem (cauliflory). [2] [3] The flowers are large, conspicuous and bisexual; the calyx is actinomorphic (rotationally symmetrical), but the corolla is zygomorphic, sometimes strongly so. [2] [3] Although some species have four stamens in each flower, they are usually reduced in number with two stamens, usually the posterior pair, forming staminodes instead. [2] [3]
Twenty of the twenty-one species are found on the island of Grande Terre (the main island of New Caledonia). Three species occur on the adjacent island of Île des Pins, two on Lifou and one on Maré in the Loyalty Islands, and two on Vanuatu (including one introduced species). [2]
Oxera vanuatuensis is only known from Vanuatu, where it is only known from cultivated specimens. [2] Villagers on Pentecost Island (and their descendants on Maewo call the tree harongmau, and propagate the species by planting seeds, transplanting seedlings or taking cuttings. [2] The plant is thought to treat illnesses caused by black magic, and profuse flowering from the trunk is thought to foretell a good harvest of yams. [2]
Twenty-one species are recognised in the genus Oxera, in five informal species groups: [2] [Note 1]
[4] 
[5] [6] 
[8] The genus Oxera was erected by French voyager and botanist Jacques Labillardière in 1824, based on a single specimen that he had collected in New Caledonia. [2] The closest relative of Oxera is the genus Faradaya , and the two genera were once united as the tribe Oxereae. [2] Collectively, they are the sister group to a clade containing Clerodendrum and a number of segregate genera such as Kalaharia , Huxleya , Amasonia and Tetraclea . [9] [10] Both genera are now treated as members of the subfamily Teucrioideae, following work published by Philip D. Cantino in 1992. [2]
The Lamiaceae or Labiatae are a family of flowering plants commonly known as the mint, deadnettle or sage family. Many of the plants are aromatic in all parts and include widely used culinary herbs like basil, mint, rosemary, sage, savory, marjoram, oregano, hyssop, thyme, lavender, and perilla, as well as other medicinal herbs such as catnip, salvia, bee balm, wild dagga, and oriental motherwort. Some species are shrubs, trees, or, rarely, vines. Many members of the family are widely cultivated, not only for their aromatic qualities, but also their ease of cultivation, since they are readily propagated by stem cuttings. Besides those grown for their edible leaves, some are grown for decorative foliage. Others are grown for seed, such as Salvia hispanica (chia), or for their edible tubers, such as Plectranthus edulis, Plectranthus esculentus, Plectranthus rotundifolius, and Stachys affinis. Many are also grown ornamentally, notably coleus, Plectranthus, and many Salvia species and hybrids.
Leonotis is a genus of flowering plants in the family Lamiaceae. One species, Leonotis nepetifolia, is native to tropical Africa and southern India. It is naturalized throughout most of the tropics. The other species are endemic to southern + eastern Africa.
The Verbenaceae, the verbena family or vervain family, is a family of mainly tropical flowering plants. It contains trees, shrubs, and herbs notable for heads, spikes, or clusters of small flowers, many of which have an aromatic smell.
Vitex is a genus of flowering plants in the sage family Lamiaceae. It has about 250 species. Common names include chaste tree or chastetree, traditionally referring to V. agnus-castus, but often applied to other species, as well.
Clerodendrum is a genus of flowering plants formerly placed in the family Verbenaceae, but now considered to belong to the Lamiaceae (mint) family. Its common names include glorybower, bagflower and bleeding-heart. It is currently classified in the subfamily Ajugoideae, being one of several genera transferred from Verbenaceae to Lamiaceae in the 1990s, based on phylogenetic analysis of morphological and molecular data.
The south Melanesian cuckooshrike is an uncommon species of bird in the cuckooshrike family. It is found in New Caledonia, Bougainville Island, the Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu. The species is a large (32–37 cm) cuckoo-shrike with a long square tail and all over dark grey plumage. The eye of adults is yellow, whereas that of the juvenile is dark. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests and subtropical or tropical moist montane forests.
Ochrosia is a genus of flowering plants, first described in 1789. It is in the family Apocynaceae, native to Southeast Asia, Australia, and various islands of the Indian and Pacific Oceans.
Cunonia is a genus of shrubs and trees in the family Cunoniaceae. The genus has a disjunct distribution, with 24 species endemic to New Caledonia in the Pacific, and one species in Southern Africa. Leaves are opposite, simple or pinnate with a margin entire to serrate. Interpetiolar stipules are often conspicuous and generally enclose buds to form a spoon-like shape. Flowers are bisexual, white, red, or green, arranged in racemes. The fruit is a capsule opening first around the base then vertically, seeds are winged.
Clerodendrum quadriloculare is a species of flowering plant native to New Guinea and the Philippines. It is one of many species previously included in the family Verbenaceae, but transferred to the Lamiaceae based on molecular studies. The plants produce flowers which look good in a garden, but it can be difficult to eradicate.
Rotheca is a genus of flowering plants in the family Lamiaceae. Estimates of the number of species in the genus vary from about 35 to as many as 60. Three of the species are native to tropical Asia, with the rest occurring in Sub-Saharan Africa. The type species for the genus is Rotheca serrata. It had originally been named Rotheca ternifolia, but this name is now considered illegitimate.
Atractocarpus is a genus of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae. Its members are commonly known as native gardenias in Australia. The genus name is derived from the Ancient Greek terms atractos "spindle", and karpos "fruit", from the spindle-shaped fruit of the type species.
Clerodendrum trichotomum, the harlequin glorybower, glorytree or peanut butter tree, is a species of flowering plant in the family Lamiaceae. It is native to China, Korea, Taiwan, Japan, India, and the Philippines.
Clerodendrum speciosissimum is a tropical shrub of the family Lamiaceae, native to Indonesia and Papuasia, but now naturalized in parts of Latin America, Africa, the Caribbean, Seychelles, and Florida.
Oxera balansae is a New Caledonian flowering plant in the mint family (Lamiaceae). It was first formally named in 1906. Little is known about its population size; it is known from scattered locations on Grande Terre, Pine Island, and Lifou. It is listed as an Endangered species on the IUCN Red List due to its limited distribution and habitat loss and degradation by agriculture, rusa deer, and uncontrolled fires.
Oxera baladica is a species of flowering plant in the family Lamiaceae. It comprises two subspecies, both of which are included as vulnerable species on the IUCN Red List:
Faradaya is a genus of plants in the mint family, Lamiaceae, first described in 1865 by Victorian government botanist Ferdinand von Mueller in Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae. Following a revision of the genera Oxera, Clerodendrum, Faradaya, and Hosea in 2015 the genus has been included in Oxera.
Oxera splendida is an evergreen vine in the family Lamiaceae which produces white, fragrant flowers and white, egg-shaped fruit. It naturally is occurs in the tropical rain forests of tropical Asia and Australia and is often sighted along rain forest margins such as roads. Some common names include October Glory, Glory Vine, Potato Vine and Fragrant Faradaya. Australian indigenous names include Garanggal used from Cairns to Yarrabah, Buku used in the Tully River area, Koie-yan used at Dunk Island and Djungeen used by the Girramay clan.
Deplanchea is a genus of about eight species of tropical rainforest trees, constituting part of the plant family Bignoniaceae.
Eugène Vieillard (1819–1896) was a French physician and botanist.
Flore de la Nouvelle-Calédonie is an ongoing multi-volume flora describing the vascular plants of New Caledonia in the South-West Pacific. published by the National Museum of Natural History in Paris since 1967. Each species treatment typically includes taxonomic information, morphological description, a line drawing and a distribution map. Originally published as Flore de la Nouvelle-Calédonie et Dépendances, since 2014 it has been renamed shortly Flore de la Nouvelle-Calédonie and is co-published with Institut de Recherche pour le Développement in a fully colored format. Flore de la Nouvelle-Calédonie currently consists of 27 volumes, covering little over 50% of a total of approximately 3,400 species native to the New Caledonian archipelago. Major botanical families awaiting treatment include Rubiaceae, Cyperaceae, Rutaceae, and Poaceae.
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