Linaria

Purple toadflax Linaria purpurea, copyright Matt Lavin.

Belongs within: Scrophulariaceae.

Linaria, toadflaxes, is a primarily Eurasian genus of ascending to erect herbs with flowers borne in a terminal spike or raceme (Hickman 1993).

Characters (from Hickman 1993): Annual to perennial, generally glabrous. Stem ascending to erect, simple or branched at base. Leaves generally opposite or whorled (or upper alternate), sessile, simple, linear to ovate, generally wider on non-flowering shoots, entire to dentate, pinnately veined. Inflorescence a spike or raceme, terminal; bracts reduced, alternate. Flower with calyx lobes 5, deep, more or less equal; corolla five-lobed, two-lipped, lower side of tube spurred at base, lower side of throat swollen, more or less hairy, more or less closing corolla below lips; stamens 4, in two pairs, included; stigma small, head-like or lobes 2, flat. Fruit more or less spheric, opening by slits into chambers near tip. Seeds many, flat and winged or pyramid-like and more or less ridged.

<==Linaria
    |--L. alpina C55a
    |--L. bipartita H93
    |--L. canadensis [incl. L. canadensis var. texana] H93
    |--L. candollei C55a
    |--L. genistifolia H93
    |    |--L. g. ssp. genistifolia H93
    |    `--L. g. ssp. dalmatica h93
    |--L. latifolia C06
    |--L. longipes D30
    |--L. maroccana H93
    |--L. micrantha C55a
    |--L. minor C55b
    |--L. pinifolia H93
    |--L. purpurea C55b
    |--L. simplex C55a
    |--L. supina C55a
    |--L. thymifolia C55a
    `--L. vulgaris C55a

*Type species of generic name indicated

REFERENCES

[C55a] Candolle, A. de. 1855a. Géographie Botanique Raisonée: Ou exposition des faits principaux et des lois concernant la distribution géographique des plantes de l’époque actuelle vol. 1. Librairie de Victor Masson: Paris.

[C55b] Candolle, A. de. 1855b. Géographie Botanique Raisonée: Ou exposition des faits principaux et des lois concernant la distribution géographique des plantes de l’époque actuelle vol. 2. Librairie de Victor Masson: Paris.

[C06] Cheeseman, T. F. 1906. Manual of the New Zealand Flora. John Mackay, Government Printer: Wellington.

[D30] Druce, G. C. 1930. Account of a botanical tour in Cyprus. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London 141: 50–52.

[H93] Hickman, J. C. (ed.) 1993. The Jepson Manual: Higher Plants of California. University of California Press: Berkeley (California).