The Morphological study of the genus Lallemantia Fisch. et Mey. (Lamiaceae) in Iran

The genus Lallemantia Fisch et Mey belongs to Lamiaceae family is represented by thefollowing 5 species: L. peltata, L. canescens, L. iberica, L. royleana and L. baldshuanica. Inthis study, in order to identify and distinct the species from each others, the morphological characters of Lallemantia species were investigated. Plant description is based on living and herbarium specimens. 30 Qualitative and quantitative features were studied, and general explanations of qualitative attributes are based on Stern Terminology, and all measurements were made directly on herbarium specimens. Morphological characters such as: habit, stem length, width, length and shape of stem and floral leaves and its petioles, calyx and its teeth, bracts and inflorescent, the forms of leaf margine, apic and base, corolla colors and calyx corolla ratio were investigated. The present study showed that, some morphological characters were varying between species. Significant variations, mainly useful at the infrageneric level were found in: stem length, leaves shape and margins, the shape and size of upper tooth of calyx, bracts and inflorescent shape and corolla calyx ratio. These features had taxonomic value in the classification and were useful in identification of species, specially 2 longitudinal folds whitin the upper lip of corolla were useful in distinguishing of Lallemantia species from other genera in Lamiaceae family.