Snapdragon
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Antirrhinum Temporal range: 5–0 Ma Recent |
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| Antirrhinum majus | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| (unranked): | Angiosperms |
| (unranked): | Eudicots |
| (unranked): | Asterids |
| Order: | Lamiales |
| Family: | Plantaginaceae |
| Tribe: | Antirrhineae |
| Genus: |
Antirrhinum L. |
| Type species | |
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Antirrhinum majus L. |
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Antirrhinum is a genus of plants commonly known as dragon flowers or snapdragons because of the flowers' fancied resemblance to the face of a dragon that opens and closes its mouth when laterally squeezed. They are native to rocky areas of Europe, the United States, and North Africa.
The genus is morphologically diverse, particularly the New World group (Saerorhinum). The genus is characterized by personate flowers with an inferior gibbous corolla.
Antirrhinum used to be treated within the family Scrophulariaceae, but studies of DNA sequences have led to its inclusion in a vastly enlarged family Plantaginaceae within the tribe Antirrhineae.
The taxonomy of this genus is complex and not yet fully resolved at present. In particular the exact circumscription of the genus, especially the inclusion of the New World species (Saerorhinum) is contentious. The situation is further complicated by the variety of terms in use for infrageneric ranks, especially of the Old World species, that is Antirrhinum, sensu stricto (e.g. Streptosepalum, Kicksiella, Meonantha).
The USDA Plants Database recognises only two species. A. majus (the garden snapdragon), the only species naturalised in North America, and Antirrhinum bellidifolium (the lilac snapdragon), now considered to be Anarrhinum bellidifolium (L.) Willd. As of 2014 The Plant List accepts 21 species.
A widely accepted scheme (Thompson 1988), placed 36 species in the genus in three sections. While many botanists accepted this broad circumscription (sensu lato), whose main departure from other classifications was the inclusion of the New World Saerorhinum, others did not, restricting the genus to the Old World. (For a comparison of Thompson with earlier systems, see Oyama and Baum, Table 1.) New species also continue to be discovered (see e.g. Romo et al., 1995).
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