Common Name: PLANTAIN FAMILY
Habit: Annual to shrub, some aquatic. Leaf: basal or cauline, alternate or opposite (whorled), simple, entire to dentate or lobed, venation generally pinnate; stipules 0. Inflorescence: raceme, spike, or flowers axillary in 1--few-flowered clusters; flowers few to many, each subtended by 1 bract. Flower: unisexual or bisexual, radial or bilateral; sepals 4--5, generally fused at base; corolla 4--5-lobed, scarious or not, persistent or not, generally 2-lipped, upper lip generally 2-lobed, lower generally 3-lobed, spur present or not, tube sac-like at base or not; stamens 2 or 4, alternate corolla lobes, epipetalous, staminode 0 or 1--2, anthers opening by 2 slits; ovary superior, [1]2--4-chambered, style 1, stigma lobes 0 or 2. Fruit: generally a capsule, septicidal, loculicidal, circumscissile, or dehiscing by terminal slits or pores.
Genera In Family: +- 110 genera, +- 2000 species: worldwide, especially temperate. Note: Veronicaceae sensu Olmstead et al. Recently treated to include Callitrichaceae, Hippuridaceae, and most non-parasitic California genera of Scrophulariaceae (except Buddleja, Diplacus, Erythranthe, Limosella, Lindernia, Mimetanthe, Mimulus, Myoporum, Scrophularia, Verbascum). California Maurandya moved to Holmgrenanthe and Maurandella. Mohavea moved to Antirrhinum. Limnophila ×ludoviciana Thieret an occasional agricultural weed in rice fields. Hebe ×franciscana (Eastw.) Souster, Hebe speciosa (R. Cunn.) Andersen only cultivated.
eFlora Treatment Author: Margriet Wetherwax, except as noted
Scientific Editor: Robert W. Patterson, Bruce G. Baldwin.

Habit: [Annual] perennial herb [shrub]. Stem: 1--many, ascending to erect. Leaf: generally opposite, clasping, +- dentate to pinnately-lobed. Inflorescence: flowers in terminal interrupted spikes, 2--4 per node; bracts 2 proximal to calyx. Flower: sepals 5, free; corolla 5-lobed, 2-lipped, white to violet or purple, tube 4-angled, upper lip 2-lobed, arched, lower lip reflexed; stamens 4, in 2 pairs, anther sacs well separated by thick tissue; stigma lobes 2, flat. Fruit: loculicidal, +- ovoid. Seed: many, surface net-like.
Etymology: (Latin: from stemodiacra, stamens with 2 tips)
eFlora Treatment Author: Robert E. Preston & Margriet Wetherwax
Unabridged Reference: Turner & Cowan 1993 Phytologia 74:61--103