Linaria vulgaris

{{Short description|Species of plant}} {{Speciesbox | image = Linaria vulgaris flowers - Keila.jpg | image_caption = ''Linaria vulgaris'' flowers | image2 = Linaria vulgaris 2018-09-01 7587.jpg | image2_caption = ''Linaria vulgaris'' | genus = Linaria | species = vulgaris | authority = Mill. | range_map = }}

'''''Linaria vulgaris''''', the '''common toadflax''',<ref>Natural History Museum: [https://web.archive.org/web/20090519043709/http://flood.nhm.ac.uk/jobj/java/runjava.jobj?java=ctol.CTOLServer&method=printNamePage&accountref=987&NAMEID=7673 ''Linaria vulgaris'']</ref><ref name="PlantAtlas">{{cite web | title=Common Toadflax ''Linaria vulgaris'' Mill. | website=PlantAtlas | url=https://plantatlas2020.org/atlas/2cd4p9h.ff3 | access-date=2025-11-07}}</ref><ref name=blamey>{{cite book | last1=Blamey | first1=Marjorie | last2=Grey-Wilson | first2=C. | title=The Illustrated Flora of Britain and Northern Europe | publisher=Hodder & Stoughton | date=1989 | isbn=0-340-40170-2 | page=358}}</ref> is a species of flowering plant in the family Plantaginaceae, native to Europe, and northern, central and eastern Asia.<ref name="POWO">{{cite web | title=''Linaria vulgaris'' Mill. | website=Plants of the World Online | date=2007-08-06 | url=https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:325777-2 | access-date=2025-11-07}}</ref><ref name="WCSP_325777-2">{{cite web |title=''Linaria vulgaris''|work=World Checklist of Selected Plant Families |publisher=Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew |url=http://wcsp.science.kew.org/namedetail.do?name_id=325777-2 |access-date=2020-03-05}}</ref> It has also been introduced to North America and is now common there.<ref name=ROM>{{cite book |last1=Dickinson |first1=T. |last2=Metsger |first2=D. |last3=Bull |first3=J. |last4=Dickinson |first4=R. |year=2004 |title=The ROM Field Guide to Wildflowers of Ontario |location=Toronto |publisher=Royal Ontario Museum|page=367 |isbn=0771076525 |oclc=54691765}}</ref>

==Taxonomy== Three subspecies are accepted by the Plants of the World Online database:<ref name="POWO"/> *''Linaria vulgaris'' subsp. ''vulgaris'' — Europe, northern Asia *''Linaria vulgaris'' subsp. ''chinensis'' (Bunge ex Debeaux) D.Y.Hong — eastern Asia (China, Korea) *''Linaria vulgaris'' subsp. ''pinetorum'' Kosachev — Altai Mountains of central Asia

The closely related ''Linaria acutiloba'' Fisch. from central and northeastern Asia,<ref name="POWO-acutiloba">{{cite web | title=''Linaria acutiloba'' Fisch. | website=Plants of the World Online | url=https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:804415-1 | access-date=2025-11-07}}</ref> is treated by the ''Flora of China'' as an additional subspecies, ''Linaria vulgaris'' subsp. ''acutiloba'' (Fisch.) D.Y.Hong.<ref name="FOC-acutiloba">{{cite web | title=''Linaria vulgaris'' subsp. ''acutiloba'' in Flora of China @ efloras.org | website=eFloras.org Home | url=http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=2&taxon_id=210001025 | access-date=2025-11-07}}</ref>

==Description== It is a perennial plant with short spreading roots, erect to decumbent stems {{cvt|15|–|90|cm|0}} high, with fine, threadlike, glaucous blue-green leaves {{cvt|2|–|8|cm|in|frac=4}} long and {{cvt|1|–|5|mm|in|2}} broad. The flowers are similar to those of the snapdragon but smaller and slenderer, {{cvt|25|–|33|mm|in|2}} long, pale yellow except for an area of the lower tip which is variably orange-yellow toned, borne in dense terminal racemes from mid summer to mid autumn (June to October in Britain).<ref name=blamey/><ref name="Streeter">{{cite book | last=Streeter | first=David | title=Flower Guide | publisher=Collins | date=2010 | isbn=978-0-00-718389-0 | page=414 }}</ref> The flowers are mostly visited by bumblebees.<ref>{{Cite journal | doi = 10.1111/plb.12328| title = Competition for pollinators and intra-communal spectral dissimilarity of flowers| journal = Plant Biology| volume = 18| pages = 56–62| year = 2015| last1 = Van Der Kooi | first1 = C. J.| last2 = Pen | first2 = I.| last3 = Staal | first3 = M.| last4 = Stavenga | first4 = D. G.| last5 = Elzenga | first5 = J. T. M.| issue = 1| url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/273158762 | pmid = 25754608| hdl = 11370/caee8d0d-9724-4056-9d45-93162a5a7afc| hdl-access = free}}</ref> Rarely, symmetrical five-spurred peloric flowers can be found.<ref name=blamey/> The fruit is an oblong to globose capsule {{cvt|5|–|11|mm|in|2}} long and {{cvt|5|–|7|mm|in|2}} broad, containing numerous small seeds.<ref name=blamey/>

==Ecology== thumb|Pollination by garden bumblebee The plant is widespread on 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 bees and bumblebees (''Bombus'' species).<ref name=blamey/>

''Linaria vulgaris'' is a food plant 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 (''Boloria eunomia''), ''Pyrrhia umbra'', brown rustic (''Rusina ferruginea''), and ''Stenoptilia bipunctidactyla''.

The plant may be mildly toxic to livestock,<ref name=commonweedsofuni00unit >{{cite book |title=Common Weeds of the United States |date=1971 |publisher=Dover |location=New York |isbn=0-486-20504-5 |page=[https://archive.org/details/commonweedsofuni00unit/page/328 328] |url=https://archive.org/details/commonweedsofuni00unit/page/328 }}</ref> but has also been used to treat cattle with rumination problems.<ref name="organic">{{cite web | title=The biology and non-chemical control of Common Toadflax (''Linaria vulgaris'' Mill.) | last1 = Bond | first1 = W. | last2 = Davies | first2 = G. | url=https://garden-organic.files.svdcdn.com/production/documents/linaria-vulgaris.pdf | access-date=2025-11-07}}</ref>

==Fossil record== Seeds of the common toadflax were identified from the Hoxnian interglacial strata at Clacton. Records have also come from the Weichselian glaciation strata in Essex, Huntingdonshire, Surrey and North Wales. This evidence makes the native status of the plant in Britain quite evident despite the very strong association that it has today with waste places and man-made habitats.<ref>{{cite book |title=The History of the British Flora, A Factual Basis for Phytogeography |first=Harry |last=Godwin |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=0-521-20254-X |date=1975}}</ref>

==Cultivation and uses== thumb|''Linaria vulgaris'' subsp. ''vulgaris'' in Oslo, Norway While most commonly found as a wildflower, toadflax is sometimes cultivated for cut flowers, which are long-lasting in a vase. Like the related snapdragons (''Antirrhinum''), they are often grown in children's gardens for the "snapping" flowers which can be made to "talk" by squeezing them at the base of the corolla.<ref name=mabey>{{cite book |last=Mabey |first=R. |date=1996 |title=Flora Britannica |publisher=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 now naturalised in many U.S. states and Canadian provinces, common on roadsides and in poor soils.<ref>{{cite book |first1=Nathaniel Lord |last1=Britton |first2=Addison |last2=Brown |title=An Illustrated Flora of the Northern United States and Canada |publisher=Dover Publications |orig-year=first published 1913 |date=1970 |isbn=0-486-22642-5 |volume=3 |page=177}}</ref>

===Traditional medicine=== {{Expand section|date=November 2025}} Despite its reputation as a weed, this plant has been used in folk medicine for a variety of ailments. A tea made from the leaves was taken as a laxative and strong diuretic as well as for jaundice, dropsy, and enteritis with drowsiness.{{citation needed|date=December 2014}} For skin diseases and piles, either a leaf tea or an ointment made from the flowers was used.{{citation needed|date=December 2014}} In addition, a tea made in milk instead of water has been used as an insecticide. Some evidence may support its diuretic and fever-reducing properties.<ref>{{cite book |first1=Steven |last1=Foster |first2=James A. |last2=Duke |title=A Field Guide to Medicinal Plants and Herbs: Of Eastern and Central North America (Peterson Field Guides) |publisher=Houghton Mifflin |date=2000 |isbn=0-395-98814-4 |page=[https://archive.org/details/fieldguidetomedi00fo/page/120 120] |url=https://archive.org/details/fieldguidetomedi00fo/page/120 }}</ref>

The species has a long history of use in traditional medicine; information is available in Barker (2001).<ref name="organic"/><ref>{{cite book | last=Barker | first=Julian | title=The medicinal flora of Britain and Northwestern Europe | publisher=Winter Press | publication-place=West Wickham | date=2001 | isbn=978-1-874581-63-5 | page=}}</ref>

==Other names== ''Linaria acutiloba'' {{small|Fisch. ex Rchb.}} is a synonym.<ref name=flora>{{cite web |website=Flora Europaea |url=http://rbg-web2.rbge.org.uk/cgi-bin/nph-readbtree.pl/feout?GENUS_XREF=Linaria&SPECIES_XREF=vulgaris |title=''Linaria vulgaris''}}</ref>

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''),<ref name=ROM/> 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 ''Kickxia''), 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, and yellow toadflax.<ref name=mabey/>

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== {{Commons category}} * [https://www.invasivespeciesinfo.gov/terrestrial/plants/yellow-toadflax Species Profile - Yellow Toadflax (''Linaria vulgaris'')], National Invasive Species Information Center, United States National Agricultural Library. Lists general information and resources for yellow toadflax.

vulgaris Category:Medicinal plants Category:Flora of Europe Category:Flora of temperate Asia Category:Ruderal species Category:Taxa named by Philip Miller