''Vitex'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...

s in the sage

family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...

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 In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

.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 The International Association for Plant Taxonomy (IAPT) is an organization established to promote an understanding of plant biodiversity, facilitate international communication of research between botanists, and oversee matters of uniformity and ...

(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 Native may refer to: People * Jus soli, citizenship by right of birth * Indigenous peoples, peoples with a set of specific rights based on their historical ties to a particular territory ** Native Americans (disambiguation) In arts and entert ...

throughout the

tropics The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the Equator. They are defined in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere at N and the Tropic of Capricorn in the Southern Hemisphere at S. The tropics are also referr ...

and subtropics, with a few species in

temperate In geography, the temperate climates of Earth occur in the middle latitudes (23.5° to 66.5° N/S of Equator), which span between the tropics and the polar regions of Earth. These zones generally have wider temperature ranges throughout ...

Eurasia Eurasia (, ) is the largest continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. Primarily in the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres, it spans from the British Isles and the Iberian Peninsula in the west to the Japanese archipelago ...

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 ''Vitex negundo'', commonly known as the Chinese chaste tree, five-leaved chaste tree, or horseshoe vitex, or nisinda is a large aromatic shrub with quadrangular, densely whitish, tomentose branchlets. It is widely used in folk medicine, par ...

'' 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 Ornamental plants or garden plants are plants that are primarily grown for their beauty but also for qualities such as scent or how they shape physical space. Many flowering plants and garden varieties tend to be specially bred cultivars that i ...

. Some provide valuable

lumber Lumber is wood that has been processed into dimensional lumber, including beams and planks or boards, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, wi ...

. The flexible limbs of some species are used in

basket weaving Basket weaving (also basketry or basket making) is the process of weaving or sewing pliable materials into three-dimensional artifacts, such as baskets, mats, mesh bags or even furniture. Craftspeople and artists specialized in making baskets ...

. Some of the

aromatic In chemistry, aromaticity is a chemical property of cyclic ( ring-shaped), ''typically'' planar (flat) molecular structures with pi bonds in resonance (those containing delocalized electrons) that gives increased stability compared to satur ...

species are used medicinally or to repel

mosquitos Mosquitoes (or mosquitos) are members of a group of almost 3,600 species of small flies within the family Culicidae (from the Latin ''culex'' meaning "gnat"). The word "mosquito" (formed by ''mosca'' and diminutive ''-ito'') is Spanish for "litt ...

. The genus ''Vitex'' was named by

Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the ...

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 Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/2479), called Pliny the Elder (), was a Roman author, naturalist and natural philosopher, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the emperor Vespasian. He wrote the encyclopedic ' ...

for ''Vitex agnus-castus''. It is derived from the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

''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 In biology, phylogenetics (; from Greek φυλή/ φῦλον [] "tribe, clan, race", and wikt:γενετικός, γενετικός [] "origin, source, birth") is the study of the evolutionary history and relationships among or within groups o ...

studies of DNA sequences, ''Vitex'' is one of several genera that were transferred from the

Verbenaceae 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. The ...

to thevLamiaceae in the 1990s. It is the largest genus in the subfamily

Viticoideae Viticoideae is one of seven subfamilies in the sage family, Lamiaceae. Genera This subfamily contains the following 10 genera: * '' Cornutia'' L. * ''Gmelina'' L. * '' Paravitex'' Fletcher * '' Petitia'' Jacq. * '' Pseudocarpidium'' Millsp. * ...

of Lamiaceae.

Taxon In biology, a taxon ( back-formation from '' taxonomy''; plural taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular n ...

sampling in molecular phylogenetic studies has never been sufficient to test the

monophyly In cladistics for a group of organisms, monophyly is the condition of being a clade—that is, a group of taxa composed only of a common ancestor (or more precisely an ancestral population) and all of its lineal descendants. Monophyletic gro ...

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 ''Premna'' is a genus of flowering plants in the mint family, Lamiaceae, first described for modern science in 1771. It is widespread through tropical and subtropical regions in Africa, southern Asia, northern Australia, and various islands in th ...

'', ''

Gmelina ''Gmelina'' is a genus of plants in the family Lamiaceae. It consists of about 35 species in Australia, New Guinea, New Caledonia, Southeast Asia, India and a few in Africa. Some species such as ''G. arborea'' have been planted and/or become nat ...

'', 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 A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are all ...

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 Revision is the process of revising. More specifically, it may refer to: * Update, a modification of software or a database * Revision control, the management of changes to sets of computer files * ''ReVisions'', a 2004 anthology of alternate hi ...

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 ''Vitex agnus-castus'', also called vitex, chaste tree (or chastetree), chasteberry, Abraham's balm, lilac chastetree, or monk's pepper, is a native of the Mediterranean region. It is one of the few temperate-zone species of '' Vitex'', which is ...

'' — chasteberry, monk's pepper, chastetree * '' Vitex ajugaeflora'' * ''

Vitex altissima ''Vitex altissima'', the peacock chaste tree, is a species of woody plant reaching some 20 m in height, in the family Lamiaceae. It is native to the Indomalayan realm, namely Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Myanmar, and Sri Lanka, and is also found ...

'' * '' Vitex amaniensis'' * '' Vitex capitata'' * '' Vitex chrysocarpa'' * ''

Vitex cofassus ''Vitex cofassus'' is a species of woody plant in the family Lamiaceae. Native to New Guinea and the Southwest Pacific islands, "New Guinea teak" is planted for its hardwood, used in construction, in Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines. It ...

'' * ''

Vitex cooperi ''Vitex cooperi'' is a species of plant in the family Lamiaceae. It is found in Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panam ...

'' * ''

Vitex cymosa ''Vitex cymosa'' is a species of tree in the family Lamiaceae. It is native to Panama and South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small por ...

'' * ''

Vitex divaricata ''Vitex divaricata'' is a tree shrub of the Caribbean native to Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands.Vitex doniana'' — wild African black plum, koronfinfin * ''

Vitex evoluta ''Vitex evoluta'' is a species of plant in the family Lamiaceae. It is endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organis ...

'' * '' Vitex gaumeri'' * '' Vitex gigantea'' * ''

Vitex heptaphylla ''Vitex heptaphylla'' is a species of plant in the family Lamiaceae 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 inclu ...

'' * '' Vitex keniensis'' — Meru oak * '' Vitex kuylenii'' * '' Vitex lehmbachii'' * ''

Vitex leucoxylon ''Vitex leucoxylon'', the white wood chaste tree, is a species of deciduous woody plant with 15m height, in the family Lamiaceae. Native to Western Ghats of India and Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī La ...

'' * ''

Vitex lignum-vitae ''Vitex lignum-vitae'', known in Australia as yellow hollywood or " lignum-vitae" (also used for other species), is a rainforest tree of eastern Australia. The natural range of distribution is in dry, sub-tropical or tropical rainforest from t ...

'' — yellow hollywood, lignum-vitae * '' Vitex lindenii'' * ''

Vitex longisepala ''Vitex longisepala'' is a species of plant in the family Lamiaceae 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 inclu ...

'' * ''

Vitex lucens ''Vitex lucens'', or pūriri, is an evergreen tree endemic to New Zealand. History Pūriri was first collected (by Europeans) at Tolaga Bay by Banks and Solander during Cook's first visit in 1769. The plant was excellently described by Soland ...

'' — puriri * '' Vitex megapotamica'' * ''

'' — five-leaf chastetree * ''

Vitex obovata ''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 h ...

'' * '' Vitex orinocensis'' * ''

Vitex parviflora ''Vitex parviflora'' is a species of plant in the family Verbenaceae, also known as smallflower chastetree or the molave tree. The name "molave" is from Spanish, derived from ''mulawin'', the Tagalog word for the tree. It is also known as ''tugas ...

'' — Molave tree * '' Vitex peduncularis'' * ''

Vitex pinnata ''Vitex pinnata'' is a tree of the family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the ...

'' * ''

Vitex quinata ''Vitex'' is a genus of flowering plants in the sage Family (biology), family Lamiaceae.List of Genera in Lamiaceae. At: Peter F. Stevens. 2001 onwards. Angiosperm Phylogeny Website At: Missouri Botanical Garden Website. (see ''External links ...

'' * '' Vitex rotundifolia'' — beach vitex * ''

Vitex thyrsiflora ''Vitex thyrsiflora'' is a species of woody vine in the family Lamiaceae. It is native to tropical West and Central Africa. Its hollow stem is used as a home by an aggressive species of ant. Description Although many species of ''Vitex'' are ta ...

'' * '' Vitex triflora'' * ''

Vitex trifolia ''Vitex trifolia'', the simpleleaf chastetree, is a large coastal shrub or small tree. Description ''Vitex trifolia'' is a large coastal shrub or small tree, less than 5 m in height with the stems covered by soft hairs (tomentose). The leaves a ...

'' — simpleleaf chastetree * '' Vitex tripinnata'' * ''

Vitex urceolata ''Vitex urceolata'' is a species of plant in the family Lamiaceae. It is a tree endemic to Peninsular Malaysia. It is threatened by habitat loss Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss and habitat reduction) is the process by which a ...

'' * ''

Vitex yaundensis ''Vitex yaundensis'' is a species of plant in the family Lamiaceae. It is endemic to Cameroon. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests. It is threatened by habitat loss Habitat destruction (also termed habitat l ...

'' * '' Vitex zanzibarensis'' * '' Vitex zeyheri'' Vitex cannabifolia1

Description

Circumscription

Selected species

References

Further reading

External links