''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 Carl Linnaeus, 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 Etymology, 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 Polyphyly, 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 Paraphyly, embedded in ''Vitex''. These three genera were duly sunk into Synonym (taxonomy), synonymy with ''Vitex''. ''Pseudocarpidium'', ''Petitia'', and ''Teijsmanniodendron'' possibly are nested within ''Vitex''. Sampling in the 2009 study was not sufficient to determine the Phylogenetic tree, phylogenetic position of these genera. The Plant taxonomy, relationships of ''Teijsmanniodendron'' to these genera was not discussed in a Treatise, 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'' * ''

'' — five-leaf chastetree * ''Vitex obovata'' * ''Vitex orinocensis'' * ''Vitex parviflora'' — Molave tree * ''Vitex peduncularis'' * ''Vitex pinnata'' * ''Vitex quinata'' * ''Vitex rotundifolia'' — beach vitex * ''Vitex thyrsiflora'' * ''Vitex triflora'' * ''Vitex trifolia'' — simpleleaf chastetree * ''Vitex tripinnata'' * ''Vitex urceolata'' * ''Vitex yaundensis'' * ''Vitex zanzibarensis'' * ''Vitex zeyheri'' Vitex cannabifolia1

Description

Circumscription

Selected species

References

Further reading

External links