Common Name: Bartsias
Description: Annual herbs; simple or with a few ascending branches produced from the lower nodes.
Leaves opposite, sessile.
Flowers in terminal spike-like racemes, subtended by leaf-like bracts, bracteoles absent. Calyx tubular, persistent in fruit, 4-toothed, clefts between the teeth ± equal. Corolla 2-lipped, the upper lip hood-like, emarginate, the lower longer than the upper, 3-lobed. Stamens 4, in pairs of unequal length, held in a U-configuration under the upper corolla lip; anthers hairy with the 2 loculi of each ± equally awned at the base and shedding pollen introrsely by an attenuated pore located above the awn. Stigma capitate.
Capsule loculicidal; seeds numerous, smooth or finely reticulate.
Distribution and occurrence: World: 2 species, Mediterranean region. Australia: 2 species (naturalized), N.S.W., Vic., S.A., W.A.
Text by W. R. Barker
Taxon concept:
| | Key to the species | |
| 1 | Leaves with 2 or rarely 3 pairs of teeth; calyx 6–10 mm long, teeth half as long as the tube; corolla red-purple, rarely white; capsule glabrous | Parentucellia latifolia |
| Leaves with c. 6–10 pairs of teeth; calyx more than 10 mm long, teeth about as long the tube; corolla yellow; capsule strigose | Parentucellia viscosa |
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