Linaria purpurea (L.) Mill.
purple linaria
Glabrous, perennial herb with stout rootstock; stems to c. 80 cm tall, branching towards apex. Lvs 2.5-8 cm × 2-6 mm, linear or narrow-lanceolate, glaucous; apex acute. Infl. long; fls in dense, many-flowered, glabrous racemes, borne on each stem branch. Bracts 1.5-3 mm long, narrow-linear, < or > pedicels at anthesis. Calyx 1.5 mm long, lobed to base; lobes lanceolate or narrow-ovate, obtuse to acute. Corolla 12-15 mm long (including slightly curved spur 5-7 mm long), purple or pink, occasionally lower lip white, spotted purple, and pouch white-bearded; upper lip 3-4 mm long. Capsule 2-4 mm diam., subglobose. Seed 1-1.3 mm long, sharply 3-angled, rugose, black, wingless.
N.; S.; St.: many localities, particularly abundant in the Wellington area and in the Kawerau Gorge (C. Otago).
Italy 1875
Roadsides, waste places, railway tracks, many open disturbed habitats near settlements, to c. 700 m in the MacKenzie Basin.
FL Jan-Dec.
Most plants of purple linaria or purple toadflax have purple fls but the pink-flowered cv. 'Canon J. Went' is cultivated and also naturalised. This cv. comes true from seed. Much less common is a variant with bicoloured corollas, the lower lip being white, spotted purple (instead of all purple) with a white pouch. Such plants occur in the Kawerau Gorge. Within gardens the sp. is sometimes a nuisance because of the difficulty of eradicating the persistent rootstock.
