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, Limosella, Mimulus, Myoporum, Scrophularia, Verbascum). California Maurandya moved to Holmgrenanthe and Maurandella. 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 Patterson, Bruce G. Baldwin.

Common Name: CHINESE-HOUSES
Habit: Annual, often glandular, sometimes brown-staining. Leaf: opposite; proximal petioled. Inflorescence: bracted, often interrupted; flowers 1--many in leaf axils. Flower: calyx lobes 5, generally glabrous on inner surface; corolla +- pea-like, uniformly pale, or generally with pale regions, especially throat and base of upper lip (+- uniformly dark in Collinsia greenei), generally glabrous outside, tube short, throat +- angled to tube, +- pouched on upper side, lips generally +- = throat, upper lobes 2, +- reflexed, lower lobes 3, lateral spreading, central lobe keeled, enclosing stamens and style; stamens 4, attached unequally near throat base, spur at base of upper filaments > 1 mm, vestigial, or 0; staminode gland-like; style > 2 mm, stigma minutely 2-lobed. Fruit: septicidal and loculicidal (valves 2-lobed). Seed: generally few, +- oblong, generally plump; inner surface +- concave.
Species In Genus: +- 20 species: North America, especially California. Etymology: (Zaccheus Collins, Philadelphia botanist, 1764--1831) Note: Late-season flowers generally atypically small.
eFlora Treatment Author: Michael S. Park & Elizabeth Chase Neese