Lippia plicata Baker

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Photo: Penny English
Along road to Juniper Forest, Nyika National Park.

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Synonyms:	Lippia strobiliformis Moldenke
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Description:	A many-stemmed perennial herb up to 1.5 m high but often more stunted due to regular fires, growing from a woody rootstock; leaves aromatic when crushed. Stems erect, 4-angled, strigose with bulbous-based whitish hairs. Leaves usually opposite, rarely 3-whorled, ovate or ovate-lanceolate to elliptic, up to 12.5 cm long, much smaller on the branches, scabrid above with whitish tubercle-based hairs, densely pubescent and less scabrid beneath, the hairs longer and denser on the veins, with numerous sessile glands; midrib prominent beneath, veining impressed above; margin serrate-crenate or minutely crenate, except at the base; petiole 2–10 mm long. Inflorescences densely many-flowered, at the apices of stems and branches, often also in the axils of the upper leaves, 1.5–3.8 cm in diameter, somewhat hemispherical in flower, ovoid-oblong in fruit; peduncles 1–7 cm long, shortest in the terminal inflorescences; lower bracts ovate, ovate-oblong or ovate-lanceolate, 7–10 mm and longer than the flowers, progressively smaller upwards, green or pale green, more or less densely appressed-pubescent and minutely glandular outside. Calyx 2-lobed, c. 1.5 mm long, uniformly white-hispid. Corolla slightly to strongly scented, white with yellow throat or pink to lilac.
Type location:	Zambia
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Worldwide distribution:	Angola, DRC, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia.
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Spot characters:	Display spot characters for this species
Literature:	Burrows, J.E. & Willis, C.K. (eds) (2005). Plants of the Nyika Plateau Southern African Botanical Diversity Network Report No. 31 SABONET, Pretoria Page 283. (Includes a picture). Fernandes, R. (2005). Verbenaceae Flora Zambesiaca 8(7) Pages 32 - 34. (Includes a picture). Ntore, S. & al. (2024). Checklist of the vascular plants of Burundi Page 239. Phiri, P.S.M. (2005). A Checklist of Zambian Vascular Plants Southern African Botanical Diversity Network Report No. 32 Page 101.

Other sources of information about Lippia plicata:

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Flora of Malawi: Lippia plicata
Flora of Mozambique: Lippia plicata
Flora of Zambia: Lippia plicata

External websites:

African Plants: A Photo Guide (Senckenberg): Lippia plicata
African Plant Database: Lippia plicata
BHL (Biodiversity Heritage Library): Lippia plicata
EOL (Encyclopedia of Life): Lippia plicata
GBIF (Global Biodiversity Information Facility): Lippia plicata
Google: Web - Images - Scholar
iNaturalist: Lippia plicata
IPNI (International Plant Names Index): Lippia plicata
JSTOR Plant Science: Lippia plicata
Mansfeld World Database of Agricultural and Horticultural Crops: Lippia plicata
Plants of the World Online: Lippia plicata
Tropicos: Lippia plicata
Wikipedia: Lippia plicata