Antirrhinum majus | |
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Plant growing in an old wall in Thasos, Greece | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Eudicots |
Clade: | Asterids |
Order: | Lamiales |
Family: | Plantaginaceae |
Genus: | Antirrhinum |
Species: | A. majus |
Binomial name | |
Antirrhinum majus | |
Antirrhinum majus, the common snapdragon (often - especially in horticulture - simply "snapdragon"), is a species of flowering plant belonging to the genus Antirrhinum . The plant was placed in the family Plantaginaceae following a revision of its prior classical family, Scrophulariaceae. [1] [2] [3]
The common name "snapdragon", originates from the flowers' reaction to having their throats squeezed, which causes the "mouth" of the flower to snap open like a dragon's mouth. It is widely used as an ornamental plant in borders and as a cut flower. It is perennial but usually cultivated as an annual plant. The species has been in culture since the 15th century. [4]
It is an herbaceous perennial plant, growing to 0.5–1 m tall, rarely up to 2 m. The leaves are spirally arranged, broadly lanceolate, 1–7 cm long and 2-2.5 cm broad. The upper glandular stalk is stalk-round, sometimes woody to the middle. The opposite leaves are simple, elliptic or ovate to broad-lanceolate, sometimes linear and usually bleak. Leaflets are missing. [6]
The flowers are produced on a tall spike, each flower is 3.5-4.5 cm long, zygomorphic, with two 'lips' closing the corolla tube lobed divided into three parts and is purple red, almost 5 cm long. Wild plants have pink to purple flowers, often with yellow lips. Most 8 to 30 short stalked flowers are in an inflorescence together; the inflorescence axis is glandular hairy. The crown is 25 to 45 (rarely to 70) millimeters long and in different colors (red, pink, orange, yellow, white). The "maw" of the crown is closed by protuberance of the lower lip, one speaks here of "masked", and everted baggy at the bottom. There is a circle with four stamens. The plants are pollinated by bumblebees, who are strong enough to gently and briefly open male flowers to enter and exit them without difficulty, collecting pollen in the process. A snapdragon's calyx is up to 8 mm long, with sepals of equal length, oblong to broad.
The ovary is supreme. The fruit is an ovoid capsule 10–14 mm diameter shaped like a skull, [7] containing numerous small seeds. [8]
Four former subspecies are now considered as separate species: [9]
It is native to from southern-central France, and the eastern Pyrenees to north-eastern Spain and the Balearic Islands. They often grow in crevices and walls. [10]
Antirrhinum majus can survive a certain amount of frost, as well as higher temperatures, but does best at 17–25 °C (63–77 °F). Nighttime temperatures around 15–17 °C (59–63 °F) encourage growth in both the apical meristem and stem. [1] The species is able to grow well from seeds, flowering quickly in 3 to 4 months. It can also be grown from cuttings. [11]
Though perennial, the species is often cultivated as a biennial or annual plant, particularly in colder areas where it may not survive the winter. Numerous cultivars are available, including plants with lavender, orange, pink, yellow, or white flowers, and also plants with peloric flowers, where the normal flowering spike is topped with a single large, symmetrical flower. [8] [12] The cultivars 'Floral Showers Deep Bronze' [13] and 'Montego Pink' [14] have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.
The trailing (creeping) variety is often referred to as A. majus pendula (syn. A. pendula, A. repens).
It often escapes from cultivation, and naturalised populations occur widely in Europe north of the native range, [8] and elsewhere in temperate regions of the world. [2]
Past common names for Antirrhinum majus include: great snapdragon, lion's-mouth, rabbit's mouth, bonny rabbits, calf-snout, toad's mouth, bulldogs, and lion's-snap. [15]
In the laboratory it is a model organism, [16] for example containing the gene DEFICIENS which provides the letter "D" in the acronym MADS-box for a family of genes which are important in plant development. Antirrhinum majus has been used as a model organism in biochemical and developmental genetics for nearly a century. Many of the characteristics of A. majus made it desirable as a model organism; these include its diploid inheritance, ease of cultivation (having a relatively short generation time of around 4 months), its ease of both self-pollination and cross-pollination, and A. majus's variation in morphology and flowering color. It also benefits from its divergence from Arabidopsis thaliana , with A. thaliana's use as a common eudicot model, it has been used to compare against A. majus in developmental studies. [1]
Studies in A. majus have also been used to suggest that, at high temperatures, DNA methylation is not vital in suppressing the Tam3 transposon. Previously, it was suggested that DNA methylation was important in this process, this theory coming from comparisons of the degrees of methylation when transposition is active and inactive. However, A. majus's Tam3 transposon process did not completely support this. Its permission of transposition at 15 °C and strong suppression of transposition at temperatures around 25 °C showed that suppression of the transposition state was unlikely to be caused by the methylation state. [17] It was shown that low temperature-dependent transposition was the cause of the methylation/demethylation of Tam3, not the other way around as previously believed. It was shown in a study that decreases in the methylation of Tam3 were found in tissue that was still developing at cooler temperatures, but not in tissue that was developed or grown in hotter temperatures. [18]
Antirrhinum majus has also been used to examine the relationship between pollinators and plants. With debate as to the evolutionary advantages the conical-papillate shape of flower petals, with arguments suggesting the shape either enhanced and intensified the color of the flower or aided in orienting pollinators through sight or touch. The benefit that A. majus brought was through an identification of a mutation at the MIXTA locus that prevented this conical petal shape from forming. This allowed testing of the pollination plants with and without conical petals as well as comparisons of the absorption of light between these two groups. With the MIXTA gene being necessary in the formation of conical cells, the use of the gene in breeding of Antirrhinum was crucial, and allowed for the tests which showed why many plants produced conical-papillate epidermal cells. [19]
Another role A. majus played in examining the relationship between pollinator and plant were in the studies of floral scents. Two of A. majus's enzymes, phenylpropanoids and isoprenoids, were used in the study of its floral scent production and the scent's effect on attracting pollinators. [1]
Antirrhinin is an anthocyanin found in A. majus. [20] It is the 3-rutinoside of cyanidin. Its active ingredients include mucilages, gallic acid, resins, pectin and bitters. It is a topical emollient, antiphlogistic, astringent, antiscorbutic, hepatic and diuretic. It is effective against inflammations, it is used for haemorrhoids. It has been used in gargles against ulcerations of the oral cavity. Internally, it can be used for colitis and heartburn. Externally, as poultices, on erythemas.
Antirrhinum majus may suffer from some pests and diseases.
Insects are the primary pests that affect A. majus.
Antirrhinum majus suffers mostly from fungal infections.
In cell biology, the meristem is a type of tissue found in plants. It consists of undifferentiated cells capable of cell division. Cells in the meristem can develop into all the other tissues and organs that occur in plants. These cells continue to divide until they become differentiated and lose the ability to divide.
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 also sometimes called toadflax or dog flower. They are native to rocky areas of Europe, the United States, Canada, and North Africa. Antirrhinum species are widely used as ornamental plants in borders and as cut flowers.
Phalaenopsis, also known as moth orchids, is a genus of about seventy species of plants in the family Orchidaceae. Orchids in this genus are monopodial epiphytes or lithophytes with long, coarse roots, short, leafy stems and long-lasting, flat flowers arranged in a flowering stem that often branches near the end. Orchids in this genus are native to India, Taiwan, China, Southeast Asia, New Guinea and Australia with the majority in Indonesia and the Philippines.
Cyclamen is a genus of 23 species of perennial flowering plants in the family Primulaceae. In English, it is known by the common names sowbread or swinebread. Cyclamen species are native to Europe and the Mediterranean Basin east to the Caucasus and Iran, with one species in Somalia. They grow from tubers and are valued for their flowers with upswept petals and variably patterned leaves.
Floral symmetry describes whether, and how, a flower, in particular its perianth, can be divided into two or more identical or mirror-image parts.
Commonly known as hellebores, the Eurasian genus Helleborus consists of approximately 20 species of herbaceous or evergreen perennial flowering plants in the family Ranunculaceae, within which it gave its name to the tribe of Helleboreae. Many hellebore species are poisonous.
The ABC model of flower development is a scientific model of the process by which flowering plants produce a pattern of gene expression in meristems that leads to the appearance of an organ oriented towards sexual reproduction, a flower. There are three physiological developments that must occur in order for this to take place: firstly, the plant must pass from sexual immaturity into a sexually mature state ; secondly, the transformation of the apical meristem's function from a vegetative meristem into a floral meristem or inflorescence; and finally the growth of the flower's individual organs. The latter phase has been modelled using the ABC model, which aims to describe the biological basis of the process from the perspective of molecular and developmental genetics.
Linaria vulgaris, the common toadflax, yellow toadflax or butter-and-eggs, is a species of flowering plant in the family Plantaginaceae, native to Europe, Siberia and Central Asia. It has also been introduced and is now common in North America.
A flower, also known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants. Flowers consist of a combination of vegetative organs – sepals that enclose and protect the developing flower, petals that attract pollinators, and reproductive organs that produce gametophytes, which in flowering plants produce gametes. The male gametophytes, which produce sperm, are enclosed within pollen grains produced in the anthers. The female gametophytes are contained within the ovules produced in the carpels.
Cymbalaria muralis, commonly called ivy-leaved toadflax or Kenilworth ivy, is a low, spreading, viney plant with small purple flowers, native to southern Europe. It belongs to the plantain family (Plantaginaceae), and is introduced to many other temperate locations. The flower stalk is unusual for seeking light until it is fertilized, after which it grows away from the light. Other names include coliseum ivy, Oxford ivy, mother of thousands, and wandering sailor.
Impatiens repens, the Ceylon balsam, yellow impatiens, or creeping balsam, is a species of flowering plant in the family Balsaminaceae, from Sri Lanka. As the Latin name repens indicates, it is a low-growing plant with a creeping habit. This evergreen perennial can be found in wet-zone rain forests. Growing to 50 cm (20 in) tall and broad, it has small kidney-shaped leaves borne on red stems, and hooded yellow flowers in summer and autumn. It can be seen cultivated in gardens as an ornamental plant. In temperate zones it must be protected from temperatures below 10 °C (50 °F), so must be grown under glass during the winter months, It requires a sheltered position in partial shade.
Pseudorontium is a genus of flowering plants with one species, Pseudorontium cyathiferum, a New World snapdragon known by the common names dog's-mouth and Deep Canyon snapdragon. It is native to the deserts of northern Mexico and adjacent California and Arizona. It is an annual herb producing a hairy, erect, non-climbing stem with many oval-shaped leaves. The solitary flowers are dark-veined deep purple and white, often with some yellow in the throat, and are about a centimeter long. Previously considered to belong among the New World Antirrhinum species, it is now considered the sole member of the related genus Pseudorontium.
Neogaerrhinum filipes, synonym Antirrhinum filipes, is an annual species of North American flowering plant in the family Plantaginaceae. It is known by the common name yellow twining snapdragon. This herbaceous plant is native to deserts of the southwestern United States and northern Mexico, where it is common.
Haloragis erecta, the shrubby haloragis, toatoa or erect seaberry, is a plant species that is endemic to New Zealand.
The Antirrhineae are one of the 12 tribes of the family Plantaginaceae. It contains the toadflax relatives, such as snapdragons.
Floral scent, or flower scent, is composed of all the volatile organic compounds (VOCs), or aroma compounds, emitted by floral tissue. Other names for floral scent include, aroma, fragrance, floral odour or perfume. Flower scent of most flowering plant species encompasses a diversity of VOCs, sometimes up to several hundred different compounds. The primary functions of floral scent are to deter herbivores and especially folivorous insects, and to attract pollinators. Floral scent is one of the most important communication channels mediating plant-pollinator interactions, along with visual cues.
Anthochlor pigments are a group of secondary plant metabolites and with carotenoids and some flavonoids produce yellow flower colour. Both, chalcones and aurones are known as anthochlor pigments. Anthochlor pigments serve as UV nectar guides in some plants. Important anthochlor pigments accumulating plants are from the genus Coreopsis, Snapdragon or Bidens ferulifolia.
Pelorism is the term, said to be first used by Charles Darwin, for the formation of 'peloric flowers' which botanically is the abnormal production of radially symmetrical (actinomorphic) flowers in a species that usually produces bilaterally symmetrical (zygomorphic) flowers. These flowers are spontaneous floral symmetry mutants. The term epanody is also applied to this phenomenon. Bilaterally symmetrical (zygomorphic) flowers are known to have evolved several times from radially symmetrical (actinomorphic) flowers, these changes being linked to increasing specialisation in pollinators.
Not to be confused with Rosemary Carpenter Fitzgerald.
Antirrhinum hispanicum, the Spanish snapdragon, is a species of flowering plant belonging to the genus Antirrhinum that is native to southeastern Spain.