diff -r 18bb34950eab javafx-ui-common/src/com/sun/javafx/css/parser/CSSParser.java
--- a/javafx-ui-common/src/com/sun/javafx/css/parser/CSSParser.java	Fri Jan 18 11:11:18 2013 -0800
+++ b/javafx-ui-common/src/com/sun/javafx/css/parser/CSSParser.java	Fri Jan 18 13:00:12 2013 -0800
@@ -1379,6 +1379,8 @@
             return parseRepeatingImagePattern(root);
         } else if ("ladder".regionMatches(true, 0, fcn, 0, 6)) {
             return parseLadder(root);
+        } else if ("region".regionMatches(true, 0, fcn, 0, 6)) {
+            return parseRegion(root);
         } else if ("url".regionMatches(true, 0, fcn, 0, 3)) {
             return parseURI(root);
         } else {
@@ -3298,7 +3300,35 @@
         return new ParsedValueImpl<ParsedValue<ParsedValue<?,Size>[],BorderWidths>[],BorderWidths[]> (layers, BorderImageWidthsSequenceConverter.getInstance());
     }
 
-
+    // parse a Region value
+    // i.e., region(".styleClassForRegion") or region("#idForRegion")
+    public static final String SPECIAL_REGION_URL_PREFIX = "http://SPECIAL-REGION-URL/";
+    private ParsedValueImpl<ParsedValue[],String> parseRegion(Term root)
+            throws ParseException {
+        // first term in the chain is the function name...
+        final String fn = (root.token != null) ? root.token.getText() : null;
+        if (!"region".regionMatches(true, 0, fn, 0, 6)) {
+            error(root,"Expected \'region\'");
+        }
+
+        Term arg = root.firstArg;
+        if (arg == null) error(root, "Expected \'region(\"<styleclass-or-id-string>\")\'");
+
+        if (arg.token == null ||
+                arg.token.getType() != CSSLexer.STRING ||
+                arg.token.getText() == null ||
+                arg.token.getText().isEmpty())  error(root, "Expected \'region(\"<styleclass-or-id-string>\")\'");
+
+        String styleClassOrId = arg.token.getText();
+        if (styleClassOrId.charAt(0) == '\"') styleClassOrId = styleClassOrId.substring(1);
+        if (styleClassOrId.charAt(styleClassOrId.length()-1) == '\"') styleClassOrId = styleClassOrId.substring(0,styleClassOrId.length()-1);
+        styleClassOrId = SPECIAL_REGION_URL_PREFIX+styleClassOrId;
+        ParsedValueImpl[] uriValues = new ParsedValueImpl[] {
+                new ParsedValueImpl<String,String>(styleClassOrId, StringConverter.getInstance()),
+                new ParsedValueImpl<URL,URL>(sourceOfStylesheet, null)
+        };
+        return new ParsedValueImpl<ParsedValue[],String>(uriValues, URLConverter.getInstance());
+    }
 
     // parse a URI value
     // i.e., url("<uri>")
diff -r 18bb34950eab javafx-ui-controls/src/javafx/scene/control/Labeled.java
--- a/javafx-ui-controls/src/javafx/scene/control/Labeled.java	Fri Jan 18 11:11:18 2013 -0800
+++ b/javafx-ui-controls/src/javafx/scene/control/Labeled.java	Fri Jan 18 13:00:12 2013 -0800
@@ -32,6 +32,7 @@
 import com.sun.javafx.css.converters.PaintConverter;
 import com.sun.javafx.css.converters.SizeConverter;
 import com.sun.javafx.css.converters.StringConverter;
+import com.sun.javafx.css.parser.CSSParser;
 import java.net.MalformedURLException;
 import java.net.URL;
 import java.util.ArrayList;
@@ -41,7 +42,6 @@
 import javafx.beans.property.BooleanProperty;
 import javafx.beans.property.DoubleProperty;
 import javafx.beans.property.ObjectProperty;
-import javafx.beans.property.ObjectPropertyBase;
 import javafx.beans.property.ReadOnlyObjectProperty;
 import javafx.beans.property.SimpleBooleanProperty;
 import javafx.beans.property.SimpleStringProperty;
@@ -52,6 +52,7 @@
 import javafx.scene.Node;
 import javafx.scene.image.Image;
 import javafx.scene.image.ImageView;
+import javafx.scene.layout.Region;
 import javafx.scene.paint.Color;
 import javafx.scene.paint.Paint;
 import javafx.scene.text.Font;
@@ -414,28 +415,35 @@
         if (imageUrl == null) {
             imageUrl = new StyleableStringProperty() {
 
-            @Override
-            public void applyStyle(StyleOrigin origin, String v) {
-
-                super.applyStyle(origin, v);
-                
-                    String imageUrl = null;
-                    if (v != null) {
+                @Override
+                public void applyStyle(StyleOrigin origin, String v) {
+                    super.applyStyle(origin, v);
+                    if (v == null) {
+                        ((StyleableProperty)graphicProperty()).applyStyle(origin, null);
+                    } else if (v.startsWith(CSSParser.SPECIAL_REGION_URL_PREFIX)) {
+                        final Region region = new Region();
+                        final String styleClassOrId = v.substring(CSSParser.SPECIAL_REGION_URL_PREFIX.length());
+                        if (styleClassOrId.length() > 0) {
+                            if (styleClassOrId.charAt(0) == '#') {
+                                region.setId(styleClassOrId.substring(1));
+                            } else if (styleClassOrId.charAt(0) == '.') {
+                                region.getStyleClass().add(styleClassOrId.substring(1));
+                            }
+                        }
+                        ((StyleableProperty)graphicProperty()).applyStyle(origin, region);
+                    } else {
                         URL url = null;
                         try {
                             url = new URL(v);
                         } catch (MalformedURLException malf) {
-                            // This may be a relative URL, so try resolving
-                            // it using the application classloader
+                            // This may be a relative URL, so try resolving it using the application classloader
                             final ClassLoader cl = Thread.currentThread().getContextClassLoader();
                             url = cl.getResource(v);
                         }
                         if (url != null) {
-                            ((StyleableProperty)graphicProperty()).applyStyle(origin, new ImageView(new Image(url.toExternalForm())));                            
+                            ((StyleableProperty)graphicProperty()).applyStyle(origin, new ImageView(new Image(url.toExternalForm())));
                         }
-                    } else {
-                        ((StyleableProperty)graphicProperty()).applyStyle(origin, null);
-                    }                    
+                    }
                 }
 
                 @Override