Chaste Tree

''Vitex'' is a genus of flowering plants in the sage family Lamiaceae.List of Genera in Lamiaceae. At: Peter F. Stevens. 2001 onwards. Angiosperm Phylogeny Website At: Missouri Botanical Garden Website. (see ''External links'' below). It has about 250 species.Raymond M. Harley, Sandy Atkins, Andrey L. Budantsev, Philip D. Cantino, Barry J. Conn, Renée J. Grayer, Madeline M. Harley, Rogier P.J. de Kok, Tatyana V. Krestovskaja, Ramón Morales, Alan J. Paton, and P. Olof Ryding. 2004. "Labiatae" pages 167-275. In: Klaus Kubitzki (editor) and Joachim W. Kadereit (volume editor). ''The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants'' volume VII. Springer-Verlag: Berlin; Heidelberg, Germany. ''Vitex'' In: Index Nominum Genericorum. In: Regnum Vegetabile (see ''External links'' below). Common names include chaste tree or chastetree, traditionally referring to '' V. agnus-castus'', but often applied to other species, as well.

Species of ''Vitex'' are native throughout the tropics and subtropics, with a few species in temperate Eurasia and one in New Zealand.Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families
/ref>David J. Mabberley. 2008. ''Mabberley's Plant-Book'' third edition (2008). Cambridge University Press: UK.

About 18 species are known in cultivation. ''V. agnus-castus'' and '' Vitex negundo'' are often grown in temperate climates.Anthony J. Huxley, Mark Griffiths, and Margot Levy (editors). 1992. ''The New Royal Horticultural Society Dictionary of Gardening.'' The Macmillan Press Limited, London; The Stockton Press, New York. About six others are frequently grown in the tropics.George W. Staples and Derral R. Herbst "A Tropical Garden Flora" Bishop Museum Press: Honolulu (2005) Most of the cultivated species serve as ornamentals. Some provide valuable lumber. The flexible limbs of some species are used in basket weaving. Some of the aromatic species are used medicinally or to repel mosquitos.

The genus ''Vitex'' was named by Linnaeus in ''Species Plantarum'' in 1753.Carolus Linnaeus. 1753. ''Species Plantarum'' 2:706. Laurentii Salvii. (see ''External Links'' below). ''Vitex'' was the name used by Pliny the Elder for ''Vitex agnus-castus''. It is derived from the Latin ''vieo'', meaning to weave or to tie up, a reference to the use of ''V. agnus-castus'' in basketry.Umberto Quattrocchi. 2000. ''CRC World Dictionary of Plant Names'' volume I, page 91. CRC Press: Boca Raton; New York; Washington, DC;, US. London, UK. (set). (see ''External links'' below).

As a result of phylogenetic studies of DNA sequences, ''Vitex'' is one of several genera that were transferred from the Verbenaceae to thevLamiaceae in the 1990s. It is the largest genus in the subfamily Viticoideae of Lamiaceae. Taxon sampling in molecular phylogenetic studies has never been sufficient to test the monophyly of the Viticoideae, but it is generally thought to be an unnatural group.Systematics of Lamiaceae Subfamily Viticoideae. At: Website of Kew Gardens. (see ''External links'' below). The subfamily is probably diphyletic, with '' Premna'', '' Gmelina'', and ''Cornutia'' constituting one clade, and with ''Vitex'', ''Petitia'', ''Pseudocarpidium'', and ''Teijsmanniodendron'' constituting the other.Gemma L.C. Bramley, Félix Forest, and Rogier P.J. de Kok. 2009. "Troublesome tropical mints: re-examining generic limits of ''Vitex'' and relations (Lamiaceae) in South East Asia". ''Taxon'' 58(2):500-510.

Description

''Vitex'' is a genus of shrubs and trees, from 1.0 to 35 m tall. Some species have whitish bark that is characteristically furrowed. Leaves are opposite, usually compound. The fruit is a drupe.

Circumscription

In 2009, a molecular phylogenetic study showed that three small genera, ''Paravitex'', ''Viticipremna'', and ''Tsoongia'', are embedded in ''Vitex''. These three genera were duly sunk into synonymy with ''Vitex''.

''Pseudocarpidium'', ''Petitia'', and ''Teijsmanniodendron'' possibly are nested within ''Vitex''. Sampling in the 2009 study was not sufficient to determine the phylogenetic position of these genera. The relationships of ''Teijsmanniodendron'' to these genera was not discussed in a revision of ''Teijsmanniodendron'' in 2009.Rogier P.J. de Kok, Go Rusea, and Abdul Latiff. 2009. "The Genus ''Teijsmanniodendron'' Koord. (Lamiaceae)". ''Kew Bulletin'' 64(4):587-625.

Selected species

* ''Vitex acunae''
* '' Vitex agnus-castus'' — chasteberry, monk's pepper, chastetree
* ''Vitex ajugaeflora''
* '' Vitex altissima''
* ''Vitex amaniensis''
* ''Vitex capitata''
* ''Vitex chrysocarpa''
* '' Vitex cofassus''
* ''Vitex cooperi''
* ''Vitex cymosa''
* '' Vitex divaricata''
* ''Vitex doniana'' — wild African black plum, koronfinfin
* '' Vitex evoluta''
* ''Vitex gaumeri''
* ''Vitex gigantea''
* ''Vitex heptaphylla''
* ''Vitex keniensis'' — Meru oak
* ''Vitex kuylenii''
* ''Vitex lehmbachii''
* ''Vitex leucoxylon''
* '' Vitex lignum-vitae'' — yellow hollywood, lignum-vitae
* ''Vitex lindenii''
* ''Vitex longisepala''
* '' Vitex lucens'' — puriri
* ''Vitex megapotamica''
* '' Vitex negundo'' — five-leaf chastetree
* ''Vitex obovata''
* ''Vitex orinocensis''
* '' Vitex parviflora'' — Molave tree
* ''Vitex peduncularis