FIGWORT FAMILY SCROPHULARIACEAE 
BLUE TOADFLAX 
Linaria canadensis (L.) Dumont 
The Blue Toadflax, unlike the yellow species, is a native of — 
America and although very widely distributed is not nearly as — 
common, and is not considered a weed. It is found in dry soil, 
especially in sandy places, from Nova — 
Scotia to Florida, west and southwest- — 
ward across the continent. 
It is a smooth annual or sometimes 
biennial. The flowering stems are very 
slender, usually simple but sometimes 
branched, and 4-24 inches high or more. 
There are usually some sterile shoots, with- — 
out flowers, that spread from the base of 
the plant and are very leafy. The narrow 
leaves are entire and sessile, one-quarter of 
an inch to more than 1 inch long, and usu- — 
ally those of the sterile shoots, or some of 
them, are opposite. 
The blue flowers, one-quarter inch long 
or longer, are produced from May to 
September in long slender racemes. The 
5 segments of the calyx are narrow and ~ 
about as long as the mature capsule. The 
pedicels are up to one-quarter inch long, ~ 
erect and appressed in fruit and minutely ~ 
bracted at the base. The corolla is irregu- — 
lar, 2-lipped and spurred at the base. The — 
threadlike spur is curved and as long as the 
tube or longer. The upper lip is 2-lobed and 
the lower 3-lobed. The palate on the lower ~ 
lip which closes the throat of the corolla — 
consists of a convex 2-ridged projection 
which is white. Dwarf forms in which the 
flowers have no corolla are frequently — 
found. There are 4 stamens with long — 
slender filaments. The fruit is a smooth, — 
globular, 2-celled capsule which opens at the end by a pair 
of 3-toothed valves and contains many small brown, angled 
and wingless seeds. 
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