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.

Common Name: MARE'S-TAIL
Habit: Perennial herb from rhizome, emergent aquatic, glabrous; rooting at nodes; wind-pollinated. Stem: +- erect, unbranched. Leaf: in whorls of 6--12, sessile, linear to elliptic, entire. Inflorescence: flower 1 in upper axils, +- sessile. Flower: inconspicuous, generally bisexual (or staminate proximal to pistillate); calyx a minute rim at ovary top; petals 0; stamen 1, off center on top of ovary; ovary inferior, chamber 1, style 1, off-center, +- = stamen, slender, in groove between anther sacs, +- entirely stigmatic. Fruit: achene or thin-walled drupe.
Etymology: (Greek: horse tail) Note: In Hippuridaceae in TJM (1993); now, along with Callitrichaceae and others, treated in Plantaginaceae.
eFlora Treatment Author: Elizabeth McClintock, C. Barre Hellquist & Robert R. Haynes
Reference: Olmstead & Reeves 1995 Ann Missouri Bot Gard 82:176--192