Collinsia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Collinsia is also a spider genus in the Linyphiidae family.

iCollinsia
Purple Chinese Houses (Collinsia heterophylla)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae Division: Magnoliophyta Class: Magnoliopsida Order: Lamiales Family: Plantaginaceae Genus: Collinsia Nutt.
Species
Collinsia antonina Collinsia bartsiifolia Collinsia callosa Collinsia childii Collinsia concolor Collinsia corymbosa Collinsia grandiflora Collinsia greenei Collinsia heterophylla Collinsia linearis Collinsia multicolor Collinsia parryi Collinsia parviflora Collinsia parvula Collinsia rattanii Collinsia sparsiflora Collinsia tinctoria Collinsia torreyi Collinsia verna Collinsia violacea

Collinsia is a genus of about 25 species of annual flowering plants, consisting of the Blue-eyed Marys and the Chinese Houses. It was traditionally placed in the snapdragon family Scrophulariaceae, but following recent research in molecular genetics, it has now been placed in a much enlarged family Plantaginaceae.

The genus is endemic to North America, and is named in honour of Zacchaeus Collins, a Philadelphia botanist of the late eighteenth/early nineteenth century. There are about 20 species, many of them found in California.

Two species, Collinsia parviflora and Collinsia violacea, the Smallflower Blue-eyed Mary and the Violet Blue-eyed Mary, had medicinal uses among American Indian peoples.