TOADFLAX
Scientific Name: Linaria vulgaris Mill.
Other Names: linaire vulgaire, Butter-and-eggs, Common toadflax, Yellow toadflax, Wild snapdragon, linaire commune
Family: Figwort or Snapdragon Family (Scrophulariaceae)
General Description: Perennial, reproducing by seed and by extensively creeping roots which produce new shoots and form very dense patches.
Habitat: Toadflax is widely distributed throughout Ontario, occurring in many habitats including roadsides, fence lines, waste places, pastures, edges of woods, and cultivated fields.
Seedlings
- Cotyledons are diamond-shaped to lanceolate
- First leaves are smooth and egg-shaped
- Margins of leaves are rolled inward
- White spots cover the leaf surfaces
Stems
- Erect
- 20- 90 cm (8- 36 in.) high
- Usually branched in the upper part
- Smooth and hairless
Leaves
- Leaves alternate (1 per node) but often so numerous and crowded they appear opposite (2 per node), or whorled (3 or more per node)
- Very narrow
Flowers
- Flowers in racemes at ends of stems and branches
- Each flower short-stalked
- Sepals:
- 5
- narrow
- Corolla 2-3 cm (4/5-1¼ in.) long, of 5 united petals
- Petals:
- Yellow with an orange spot on the lower lip
- Very irregular with a long spur at the lower end and 2-lipped at the top
- The upper lip with 2 small lobes
- The lower lip with 3 larger lobes
- The flower resembling the cultivated snapdragon in shape
- Seedpods egg-shaped, containing many dark brown or black, flat, winged seeds
- Flowers from June to autumn
Often Confused With
Oldfield Toadflax
Click to enlarge.
