FIGWORT FAMILY SCROPHULARIACEAE 
HARE FIGWORT 
Scrophularia leporella Bicknell 
The Hare Figwort grows mostly in woods from Vermont to 
Minnesota and south to Virginia and Kansas, and blooms from 
May to July. The stem is sharply 4-angled with flat sides, grows 
3-8 feet high and is not 
much branched except 
in the inflorescence. It is 
somewhat glandular and 
sticky near the top. The 
leaves are smooth on 
both sides when mature. 
Rather small greenish 
purple flowers are pro- 
duced in a large and 
much branched inflor- 
escence. The calyx is 
about equally 5-cleft. 
The corolla, shining out- 
side and dull within, is 
s-lobed and very irregu- 
lar, the 2 upper lobes be- 
ing much longer than the 
others and erect, the 2 
lateral also erect and the 
lower 1 usually turned 
down. Four perfect sta- 
mens, in pairs, are mostly 
included within the corolla tube. There is also a sterile stamen 
which is reduced to a greenish yellow scale on the roof of the tube. 
The style is slender but the stigma is somewhat enlarged. The 
ripe fruit is a brown, ovoid and cone-peaked capsule. 
The Maryland Figwort, Scrophularia marilandica L., begins 
blooming in July at about the end of the Hare Figwort’s season and 
continues into September. Habits and foliage of the two species are 
very similar. This plant’s corolla is greenish and dull outside, and 
brownish purple and shining within, and the 2 upper lobes are not 
much longer than the others. The sterile stamen or scale is deep 
purple. This is considered a good honey plant. . 
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