Aloysia gratissima (Gillies & Hook.) Tronc.

Wood, J.R.I. 2009. Aloysia axillaris (Verbenaceae), a new species, with notes on the genus in Bolivia. Kew Bulletin 64: 513. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12225-009-9131-5

Type

Argentina, Mendoza, Gillies s.n. (holotype K, sheet with Hooker’s drawing; isotype OXF).

Note

Synonym: Lippia lycioides (Cham.) Steud. (1841: 54). Synonym: Verbena gratissima; Gillies & Hook. in Hook. (1830: 160). Synonym: Aloysia lycioides Cham. (1832: 237). Type: Southern Brazil, Sellows.n. (holotype LE, n.v.). Synonym: Aloysia ligustrina auct., non Verbenaligustrina Lag. (1816: 18), qua est Verbena genuina. Synonym: Aloysia beckii Moldenke (1982: 18). Type: Bolivia, Cochabamba (near Pojo), S. G. Beck 7036 (holotype TEX; isotype LPB), synon. nov. Synonym: Aloysia mizquensis Ravenna (2006: 59). Type: Bolivia, Mizque, Ravenna 2500 (holotype LPB n.v.; isotype Ravenna’s private herbarium), synon. nov. Aloysia gratissima is a very widespread species and although specimens from Bolivia are relatively uniform, plants from more distant places can look rather different. However, the recent paper by Ravenna (2006) which split this species is almost certainly mistaken as it makes no allowance for infraspecific variation and is clearly based on a very small specimen sample. As with A. citrodora, forms with serrate leaves are occasionally found. Botta (1979: 88) reported var. schulziana (Moldenke) Botta from Bolivia based on Krapovickas et al. 19035, 19210 and 31210 (all SI, n.v.). This is a serrate-leaved variety having an obscurely zygomorphic calyx with somewhat subulate calyx teeth. The only specimen I have seen which seems to conform to this variety is De La Barra 300 (BOLV), collected on Cerro San Pedro, Cochabamba at 2650 m. However the characters used by Moldenke (1940) and Botta (1979, 1993) to distinguish this variety are not entirely satisfactory with the serrate leaves being found mainly in juvenile specimens and the calyx characters very difficult to discern even in Botta’s illustration (1993: 39). There also exist specimens from outside Bolivia with suborbicular, serrate leaves — Botta & Miconi 570 (K) from Cordoba in Argentina is a good example. These can only be separated with difficulty from A. virgata by their smaller size and appear to be examples of introgression between the two species.

Morphology General Habit

A small, strongly aromatic shrub in which the branchlets are often somewhat spinescent as in the type of Aloysiabeckii

Morphology Leaves

It is distinguished by the small (usually 1 – 2 × 0.5 – 0.8 cm), oblong to oblanceolate, obtuse, entire leaves, which are arranged in opposite pairs and are paler beneath but not white-tomentose

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers

The white, fragrant flowers are arranged in dense, solitary, axillary racemes, usually 2 – 3 cm long but occasionally reaching 5 cm.

Distribution

A good example with Koeberlinia spinosa Zucc. and Ruelliaerythropus (Nees) Lindau of a species with an amphitropical distribution being found in the United States and Mexico in the northern hemisphere as well as in a large area around the chaco in Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina and Bolivia. In Bolivia it is strictly Andean, being abundant from about 750 – 2800 m in the dry inter-Andean valleys in the south of the country in the Departments of Chuquisaca, Cochabamba, Potosi, Santa Cruz and Tarija. It is found in dry bushland and open dry forest and readily colonises bushy ground around cultivation and abandoned fields.