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: Perennial herb, rhizomed. Leaf: basal, deciduous to persistent, long-petioled; blade ovate to round, base acute to cordate, tip acute to rounded, margin serrate, some deeply cut to pinnately lobed. Inflorescence: scapose; axillary raceme fusiform to conical, dense to open; flowers 5--100, bracts subtending flowers or not. Flower: bilateral; sepals 2--4, fused laterally; petals 3--4 or 0, fused basally, bell-shaped [2-lipped], blue to purple-blue or white; stamens 2, epipetalous, exserted; stigmas 2, fused, minutely capped, ovules 2--16. Fruit: loculicidal, laterally flattened, notched at tip. Seed: flattened front-to-back or +- cupped, oval; coat net-like, brown.
Etymology: (Greek: united door, from basally united valves of fruit)
eFlora Treatment Author: Larry Hufford