Family Plantaginaceae
Synonyms: Trapellaceae APNI*
Callitrichaceae APNI*
Description: Annual or perennial herbs.
Leaves all in a basal rosette or rarely opposite or alternate on erect branching stems; simple, entire or pinnately lobed, often with ± parallel veins.
Inflorescences spikes or heads or rarely flowers solitary. Flowers small, actinomorphic, bisexual [or unisexual and then plants mostly monoecious], commonly 4-merous. Sepals imbricate, free or ± fused. Corolla tubular, 4-lobed; green or white or purplish. Stamens 4 [or rarely 1 or 2], alternating with the corolla lobes; filaments fused towards the base with corolla; anthers 2-locular, dehiscing by longitudinal slits. Ovary superior, of 2 carpels, 1- or 2-locular or up to 4-locular by the growth of false septa; placentation axile or basal or free-central; style simple.
Fruit a circumciss capsule or a hard nut; seeds 1–6.
Distribution and occurrence: World: 101 genera, c. 1900 species, cosmopolitan but mostly in termperate regions. Australia: 26 genera, 148 species, all States.
External links:
Angiosperm Phylogeny Website (Family: Plantaginaceae, Order: Lamiales)
Wikipedia This family has traditionally consisted of only three genera, Bougueria, Littorella, and Plantago. New phylogenetic research has indicated that Plantaginaceae s.s. (s.s. = sensu stricto, in the strict sense) were nested within Scrophulariaceae (but forming a group that did not include the type genus of that family, Scrophularia). Although Veronicaceae (1782) is the oldest family name for this group, Plantaginaceae (1789) is a conserved name under the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature (ICBN) and thus has priority over any earlier family name for a family including Plantago.Many cultivars are grown as garden ornamentals, these include species of Digitalis (foxgloves) that have escaped from cultivation and become naturalized. Aborigines used Stemodia in the treatments of various ailments.
Text by B. G. Briggs; updated Louisa Murray, Sep 2012
Taxon concept: APG IV
Taxa not yet included in identification key
Callitriche
| | Key to the genera | |
| 1 | Plant a climber or vine; leaves triangular | 2 |
| Plant herbs or shrubs; leaves linear to obovate, not triangular | 3 |
| 2 | Plants glabrous except for the calyx; leaves palmately 5–9-veined | Maurandya |
| Plants glandular-pubescent or pilose; leaves palmately 3–5-veined
Back to 1 | Lophospermum |
| 3 | Leaves opposite and sometimes whorled in parts of the plant | 4 |
| Leaves alternate on fertile parts of the plant or basal
Back to 1 | 10 |
| 4 | Bracteoles present between the calyx and the bract (minute in Bacopa caroliniana) | 5 |
| Bracteoles absent
Back to 3 | 8 |
| 5 | Leaves sessile, margins entire | 6 |
| Leaves petiolate, serrate
Back to 4 | Mecardonia |
| 6 | Fertile stamens 2, sometimes with staminodes absent or present; corolla cylindrical | Gratiola |
| Fertile stamens 4, staminodes absent or present; corolla 2-lipped or bell-shaped
Back to 5 | 7 |
| 7 | Sepals unequal; corolla more or less bell-shaped | Bacopa |
| Sepals equal; corolla strongly 2-lipped
Back to 6 | Stemodia |
| 8 | Stamens 2 | Veronica |
| Stamens 4
Back to 4 | 9 |
| 9 | Corolla 2-lipped; tube swollen into a pouch on the lower side,upper lip 2-lobed, lower lip 3-lobed with a prominent palate at the base closing the mouth | Misopates |
| Corolla nearly regular; tube inconspicuous; densely hairy at throat; lobes 4
Back to 8 | Scoparia |
| 10 | Leaves in a basal rosette with a lamina of 3–9 longitudinal veins | Plantago |
| Leaves mostly alternate (and basal Digitalis - no longitudinal veins); palmate or pinnate
Back to 3 | 11 |
| 11 | Calyx of 5 equal sepals | 12 |
| Calyx of 5 unequal sepals
Back to 10 | 14 |
| 12 | Stems of plant heteromorphic, fertile stems erect and vegetative stems prostrate or procumbent | Nuttallanthus |
| Stem of plant one type only, procumbent, prostrate to ascending
Back to 11 | 13 |
| 13 | Leaves broad palmately veined, margins with 5–11 teeth | Cymbalaria |
| Leaves broad pinnately veined, margins entire or toothed
Back to 12 | Kickxia |
| 14 | Herb, well over 1 metre high 120–150 cm tall; leaves ovate | Digitalis |
| Herb, well under 1 metre high, mostly < 70 cm tall; leaves linear
Back to 11 | Linaria |
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