Linaria vulgaris
3639875
224630685
2008-07-09T19:01:50Z
T34
194293
es: hsb: ku: sk: -cs:
{{Taxobox
| name = ''Linaria vulgaris''
| image = Linaria vulgaris 20050825 976.jpg
| image_width = 240px
| image_caption = ''Linaria vulgaris''
| regnum = [[Plant]]ae
| divisio = [[Magnoliophyta]]
| classis = [[Magnoliopsida]]
| ordo = [[Lamiales]]
| familia = [[Plantaginaceae]]
| genus = ''[[Linaria]]''
| species = '''''L. vulgaris'''''
| binomial = ''Linaria vulgaris''
| binomial_authority = [[Philip Miller|Mill.]]
}}
'''''Linaria vulgaris''''' ('''Common Toadflax'''<ref>Natural History Museum: [http://flood.nhm.ac.uk/jobj/java/runjava.jobj?java=ctol.CTOLServer&method=printNamePage&accountref=987&NAMEID=7673 ''Linaria vulgaris'']</ref><ref name=blamey>Blamey, M. & Grey-Wilson, C. (1989). ''Flora of Britain and Northern Europe''. ISBN 0-340-40170-2</ref>) is a species of [[Linaria|toadflax]] (''Linaria''), native to most of [[Europe]] and northern [[Asia]], from the [[United Kingdom]] south to [[Spain]] in the west, and east to eastern [[Siberia]] and western [[China]].<ref name=flora>''Flora Europaea'': [http://rbg-web2.rbge.org.uk/cgi-bin/nph-readbtree.pl/feout?FAMILY_XREF=&GENUS_XREF=Linaria+&SPECIES_XREF=vulgaris&TAXON_NAME_XREF=&RANK= ''Linaria vulgaris'']</ref><ref name=grin>Germplasm Resources Information Network: [http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/taxon.pl?102290 ''Linaria vulgaris'']</ref>
It is a [[perennial plant]] with short spreading roots, erect to decumbent stems 15–90 cm high, with fine, threadlike, glaucous blue-green [[leaf|leaves]] 2-6 cm long and 1-5 mm broad. The flowers are similar to those of the [[snapdragon]], 25-33 mm long, pale yellow except for the lower lip which is orange, borne in dense terminal racemes from mid summer to mid autumn. The [[fruit]] is a globose [[capsule (fruit)|capsule]] 5-11 mm long and 5-7 mm broad, containing numerous small seeds.<ref name=blamey/>
==Ecology==
[[Image:Linaria_vulgaris.jpg|left|thumb|''Linaria vulgaris'' in a meadow]]
The plant is widespread on [[Ruderal species|ruderal]] spots, along roads, in dunes, and on disturbed and cultivated land.<ref name=blamey/>
Because the flower is largely closed by its underlip, [[pollination]] requires strong insects such as [[bee]]s and [[bumblebee]]s (''Bombus'' species).<ref name=blamey/>
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]]'', [[Brown Rustic]] (''Rusina ferruginea''), and ''[[Stenoptilia bipunctidactyla]].
==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.<ref name=mabey>Mabey, R. (1996). ''Flora Britannica''. Sinclair-Stevenson ISBN 1-85619-377-2</ref>
The plant requires ample drainage, but is otherwise adaptable to a variety of conditions.
It has escaped from cultivation in [[North America]] where it is a common [[naturalisation (biology)|naturalised]] [[weed]] of roadsides and poor soils; it is listed as an [[invasive species]] in several U.S. states and Canadian provinces.<ref name=grin/><ref>Alberta Invasive Plants: [http://www.invasiveplants.ab.ca/Downloads/CommonToadflax.pdf Common Toadflax] (pdf file)</ref><ref>Nathaniel Lord Britton and Hon. Addison Brown, ''An Illustrated Flora of the Northern United States and Canada'', Dover Publications, [[1913]], [[1970]]. ISBN 0-486-22642-5 vol 3, p. 177</ref>
==Other names==
''Linaria acutiloba'' Fisch. ex Rchb. is a [[synonymy|synonym]].<ref name=flora/> Because this plant grows as a weed, it has acquired a large number of local colloquial 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 (but see ''[[Kichxia]]''), gallweed, gallwort, 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.<ref name=mabey/>
==References==
{{commons|Linaria vulgaris}}
{{wikiversity-bc|Linaria vulgaris}}
<References/>
[[Category:Plantaginaceae]]
[[Category:Flora of Europe]]
[[Category:Flora of Estonia]]
[[Category:Flora of the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Medicinal plants]]
[[de:Echtes Leinkraut]]
[[es:Linaria vulgaris]]
[[fi:Kannusruoho]]
[[fr:Linaire commune]]
[[hsb:Dobry lenčk]]
[[ku:Newroz (Linaria vulgaris)]]
[[lt:Paprastoji linažolė]]
[[nl:Vlasbekje]]
[[pl:Lnica pospolita]]
[[sk:Pyštek obyčajný]]
[[sv:Gulsporre]]