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Linaria vulgaris
Also called Butter And Eggs, Yellow Toadflax, Wild Snapdragon, Toadflax, Flaxweed, Greater Butter And Eggs, Jacob's Ladder
Common toadflax is a perennial wildflower with threadlike blue-green leaves and pale yellow, snapdragon-like flowers that bees visit. It spreads by roots and does best in well-drained, poor soil.
Linaria vulgaris, the common toadflax, is a species of flowering plant in the family Plantaginaceae, native to Europe, and northern, central and eastern Asia. It has also been introduced to North America and is now common there.
While most commonly found as a wildflower, toadflax is sometimes cultivated for cut flowers, which are long-lasting in a vase. Like the related snapdragons (Antirrhinum), they are often grown in children's gardens for the "snapping" flowers which can be made to "talk" by squeezing them at the base of the corolla.
The plant requires ample drainage, but is otherwise adaptable to a variety of conditions. It has escaped from cultivation in North America where it is now naturalised in many U.S. states and Canadian provinces, common on roadsides and in poor soils.
The plant is widespread on ruderal spots, along roads, in dunes, and on disturbed and cultivated land.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Linaria vulgaris by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
