''Nuttallanthus'' is a genus of four
species of
herb
Herbs are a widely distributed and widespread group of plants, excluding vegetables, with savory or aromatic properties that are used for flavoring and garnishing food, for medicinal purposes, or for fragrances. Culinary use typically distingu ...
aceous
annuals and
perennials
In horticulture, the term perennial ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the year") is used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. It has thus been defined as a plant that lives more than 2 years. The term is also ...
that was traditionally placed in the
foxglove
''Digitalis'' ( or ) is a genus of about 20 species of herbaceous perennial plants, shrubs, and biennials, commonly called foxgloves.
''Digitalis'' is native to Europe, Western Asia, and northwestern Africa. The flowers are tubular in sha ...
family
Scrophulariaceae
The Scrophulariaceae are a family of flowering plants, commonly known as the figwort family. The plants are annual and perennial herbs, as well as shrubs. Flowers have bilateral (zygomorphic) or rarely radial (actinomorphic) symmetry. The Scr ...
. Due to new genetic research, it has now been placed in the vastly expanded family
Plantaginaceae
Plantaginaceae, the plantain family or veronica family, is a large, diverse family (biology), family of flowering plants in the order Lamiales that includes common flowers such as Antirrhinum, snapdragon and Digitalis, foxglove. It is unrelated ...
. Three species of ''Nuttallanthus'' are native to
North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...
and one to South America. ''Nuttallanthus'' was until the 1980s
included in a wider circumscription of the genus ''
Linaria
''Linaria'' is a genus of almost 200 species of flowering plants, one of several related groups commonly called toadflax. They are annuals and herbaceous perennials, and the largest genus in the Antirrhineae tribe of the plantain family Plant ...
'', a genus now considered restricted to the
Old World
The "Old World" () is a term for Afro-Eurasia coined by Europeans after 1493, when they became aware of the existence of the Americas. It is used to contrast the continents of Africa, Europe, and Asia in the Eastern Hemisphere, previously ...
.
The members of this genus are known in English as
toadflax, a name shared with several other related genera. The scientific name honors
Thomas Nuttall
Thomas Nuttall (5 January 1786 – 10 September 1859) was an English botanist and zoologist who lived and worked in America from 1808 until 1841.
Nuttall was born in the village of Long Preston, near Settle in the West Riding of Yorkshire a ...
.
The North American species do not appear to form
interspecific hybrid
In biology, a hybrid is the offspring resulting from combining the qualities of two organisms of different varieties, subspecies, species or genera through sexual reproduction. Generally, it means that each cell has genetic material from two di ...
s at all. The most common mode of reproduction is self-fertilization, with occasional fertilization by another plant of the same species.
Closely related genera include the ''
Linaria
''Linaria'' is a genus of almost 200 species of flowering plants, one of several related groups commonly called toadflax. They are annuals and herbaceous perennials, and the largest genus in the Antirrhineae tribe of the plantain family Plant ...
'' (Eurasian toadflaxes), ''
Antirrhinum
''Antirrhinum'' is a genus of plants in the Plantaginaceae family, commonly known as dragon flowers or snapdragons because of the flowers' fancied resemblance to the face of a dragon that opens and closes its mouth when laterally squeezed. They ...
'' (snapdragons) and ''
Cymbalaria'' (ivy-leaved toadflaxes).
''
Linaria floridanus'' / ''Nuttalanthus floridana'', common name Apalachicola toadflax or Florida toadflax, is a species.
[floraofalabama.org/Plant.aspx?id=3483&syn_name=Nuttallanthus+floridanus]
References
External links
USDA Plant Profile: ''Nuttallanthus''
{{Taxonbar, from=Q7070570
Plantaginaceae genera
Plantaginaceae