vitex

{{Short description|Genus of flowering plants in the sage family Lamiaceae}}

{{Automatic taxobox

|image = Vitex altissima L.f.jpg

|image_caption = Vitex altissima

|taxon = Vitex

|authority = L.{{cite web |url=http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/genus.pl?12733 |title=Genus: Vitex L. |work=Germplasm Resources Information Network |publisher=United States Department of Agriculture |date=2004-09-10 |access-date=2010-12-12}}

|type_species = Vitex agnus-castus

|type_species_authority = L.

|diversity_link = #Selected species

|diversity = About 250 species

|synonyms_ref =

|synonyms =

• Macrostegia Nees
• Neorapinia Moldenke
• Mailelou Adans.
• Limia Vand.
• Allasia Lour.
• Nephrandra Willd.
• Tripinna Lour.
• Chrysomallum Thouars
• Tripinnaria Pers.
• Pyrostoma G.Mey.
• Wallrothia Roth 1821 not Spreng. 1815
• Psilogyne DC
• Casarettoa Walp.
• Rapinia Montrouz.
• Agnus-castus Tourn. ex Carrière
• Varengevillea Baill
• Pistaciovitex Kuntze
• Viticipremna H.J.Lam
• Tsoongia Merr.
• Paravitex H.R.Fletcher

}}

Vitex {{IPAc-en|ˈ|v|aɪ|t|ɛ|k|s}}{{OED|Vitex}} is a genus of flowering plants in the sage family Lamiaceae. 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. {{ISBN|978-3-540-40593-1}}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.[http://apps.kew.org/wcsp/namedetail.do?name_id=213290 Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families]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{{cite journal|vauthors=Tadzabia K, Maina HM, Maitera ON, Osunlaja AA | title=Elemental and Phytochemical Screening of Vitex Doniana Leaves and Stem Bark in Hong Local Government Area of Adamawa State, Nigeria| journal=International Journal of Chemical Studies| year= 2013 | volume= 1 | issue= 3 | pages= 165–172 | url=http://www.chemijournal.com/vol1Issue3/sep2013/43.1.pdf}} 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 V. 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. {{ISBN|978-0-8493-2673-8}} (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 the Lamiaceae 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.