Linaria vulgaris
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 Linaria vulgaris
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| Linaria vulgaris |
Linaria vulgaris (often known as common toadflax or butter and eggs), is a perennial plant with short spreading roots, erect to decumbent stems 30–80 cm high, with fine, threadlike, glaucous (blue-green) foliage. The flowers are similar to those of the snapdragon, pale yellow except for the lower lip which is orange, borne on dense terminal racemes from midsummer through autumn. Fruits are capsules with winged seeds.
This plant is one of the numerous species of toadflax (Linaria), and is indigenous in large parts of Europe, including the United Kingdom, but has also escaped from cultivation in North America where it is a common weed of roadsides and poor soils.
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[edit] Ecology
The plant is general on ruderal spots, along roads, in dunes, and so on.
Because the flower is largely closed by its underlip, pollination requires strong insects such as bees and bumblebees (Bombus species).
The plant is foodplant for a large number of insects such as the Sweet-Gale Moth (Acronicta euphorbiae), Mouse Moth (Amphipyra tragopoginis), Silver Y (Autographa gamma), Calophasia lunula, Gorgone Checkerspot (Charidryas gorgone carlota), Toadflax Pug (Eupithecia linariata), Satyr Pug (Eupithecia satyrata), Falseuncaria ruficiliana, Bog Fritillary (Proclossiana eunomia eunomia), Pyrrhia umbra (Pyrrhia umbra), Brown Rustic (Rusina ferruginea), and Stenoptilia bipunctidactyla.
[edit] Cultivation and uses
While most commonly found as a weed, toadflax is sometimes cultivated for cut flowers, which are long-lasting in the vase. Like snapdragons (Antirrhinum), they are often grown in children's gardens for the "snapping" flowers which can be made to "talk" be squeezing them at the base of the corolla.
The plant requires ample drainage, but is otherwise adaptable to a variety of conditions.
[edit] Other common names
Because this plant grows as a weed, it has accrued a great number of common names, including: brideweed, bridewort, butter and eggs (but see Lotus corniculatus), butter haycocks, bread and butter, bunny haycocks, bunny mouths, calf's snout, Continental weed, dead men's bones, devil's flax, devil's flower, doggies, dragon bushes, eggs and bacon (but see Lotus corniculatus), eggs and butter, false flax, flaxweed, fluellen, gallweed, gallwort, imprudent lawyer, impudent lawyer, Jacob's ladder (but see Polemonium), lion's mouth, monkey flower (but see Mimulus), North American ramsted, rabbit flower, rancid, ransted, snapdragon (but see Antirrhinum), wild flax, wild snapdragon, wild tobacco (but see Nicotiana), yellow rod, yellow toadflax.
[edit] Sources
- Ann Fouler Rhoads and Timothy A. Block, The Plants of Pennsylvania, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2000. ISBN 0-8122-3535-5
- Nathaniel Lord Britton and Hon. Addison Brown, An Illustrated Flora of the Northern United States and Canada, In three volumes, Dover Publications, 1913, 1970. ISBN 0-486-22642-5 vol 3, p. 177
- Richard Mabey, Flora Britannica, Sinclair-Stevenson, 1996. ISBN 1-85619-377-2
[1] Royal Horticultural Society's website, accessed at 20:59, 10 August 2006 (UTC)
