''Antirrhinum'' is a

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

plant Plants are the eukaryotes that form the Kingdom (biology), kingdom Plantae; they are predominantly Photosynthesis, photosynthetic. This means that they obtain their energy from sunlight, using chloroplasts derived from endosymbiosis with c ...

s in the

Plantaginaceae Plantaginaceae, the plantain family or veronica family, is a large, diverse family (biology), family of flowering plants in the order Lamiales that includes common flowers such as Antirrhinum, snapdragon and Digitalis, foxglove. It is unrelated ...

family, commonly known as dragon flowers or snapdragons because of the flowers' fancied resemblance to the face of a

dragon A dragon is a Magic (supernatural), magical legendary creature that appears in the folklore of multiple cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but European dragon, dragons in Western cultures since the Hi ...

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.

Description

The ''Antirrhinum'' is morphologically diverse, particularly the New World group (''Saerorhinum''). The genus is characterized by personate flowers with an inferior gibbous corolla.

Taxonomy

''Antirrhinum'' used to be treated within the

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Scrophulariaceae, but studies of DNA sequences have led to its inclusion in a vastly enlarged family

, within the

tribe The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide use of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. The definition is contested, in part due to conflict ...

Antirrhineae.

Circumscription

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 The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that aims to meet the needs of commerc ...

Plants Database recognises only two species: '' A. majus'' (the garden snapdragon), the only species naturalised in North America, and ''A. bellidifolium'' (the lilac snapdragon), now considered to be '' Anarrhinum bellidifolium'' (L.) Willd. There are 23 accepted 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 ''Sensu'' is a Latin word meaning "in the sense of". It is used in a number of fields including biology, geology, linguistics, semiotics, and law. Commonly it refers to how strictly or loosely an expression is used in describing any particular co ...

''), 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). In 2004 research into the molecular systematics of this group and related species by Oyama and Baum confirmed that the genus ''sensu lato'' as described by Thompson is

monophyletic In biological cladistics for the classification of organisms, monophyly is the condition of a taxonomic grouping being a clade – that is, a grouping of organisms which meets these criteria: # the grouping contains its own most recent co ...

, provided that one species ('' A. cyathiferum'') is removed to the separate genus ''Pseudorontium'', and the two species of '' Mohavea'' (''Mohavea confertiflora'' and ''M. breviflora'') are included. The species list given here follows these conclusions. This is the broad circumscription that includes the

Old World The "Old World" () is a term for Afro-Eurasia coined by Europeans after 1493, when they became aware of the existence of the Americas. It is used to contrast the continents of Africa, Europe, and Asia in the Eastern Hemisphere, previously ...

'' Misopates'' and

New World The term "New World" is used to describe the majority of lands of Earth's Western Hemisphere, particularly the Americas, and sometimes Oceania."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: ...

'' Sairocarpus''. By contrast the narrow circumscription (''sensu stricto'') confines the genus to the

Old World perennial species with a

diploid Ploidy () is the number of complete sets of chromosomes in a cell, and hence the number of possible alleles for autosomal and pseudoautosomal genes. Here ''sets of chromosomes'' refers to the number of maternal and paternal chromosome copies, ...

chromosome A chromosome is a package of DNA containing part or all of the genetic material of an organism. In most chromosomes, the very long thin DNA fibers are coated with nucleosome-forming packaging proteins; in eukaryotic cells, the most import ...

number of 16, distributed in the Mediterranean basin, approximately 25 species., following the phylogenetic analysis of Vargas ''et al.'' (2004) suggesting they are a distinct group. Both ''Misopates'' and ''Sairocarpus'' are accepted names in ''The Plant List'', and many of the New World species now have ''Sairocarpus'' as their accepted name, rather than ''Antirrhinum''. It has been proposed that many of the New World ''Antirrhinum'' be now considered under ''Sairocarpus'', in the forthcoming ''

Flora of North America The ''Flora of North America North of Mexico'' (usually referred to as ''FNA'') is a multivolume work describing the native plants and naturalized plants of North America, including the United States, Canada, St. Pierre and Miquelon, and Greenla ...

''.

Infrageneric subdivision

It is widely agreed that this broad group should be subdivided into three or four subgroups, but the level at which this should be done, and exactly which species should be grouped together, remain unclear. Some authors continue to follow Thompson in using a large genus ''Antirrhinum'', which is then divided into several sections; others treat Thompson's genus as a tribe or subtribe, and divide it into several genera. For a comparison of earlier schemes see Mateu-Andrés and de Paco, Table 1 (2005) If the broad circumscription is accepted, its three sections as described by Thompson are as follows (two Old World, one New): *Section ''Antirrhinum'': 19 Old World species of relatively large flowered

perennial plant In horticulture, the term perennial (''wikt:per-#Prefix, per-'' + ''wikt:-ennial#Suffix, -ennial'', "through the year") is used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annual plant, annuals and biennial plant, biennials. It has thus been d ...

s, including the

type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the spe ...

'' Antirrhinum majus'', mostly native to the western Mediterranean region with a focus on the

Iberian Peninsula The Iberian Peninsula ( ), also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in south-western Europe. Mostly separated from the rest of the European landmass by the Pyrenees, it includes the territories of peninsular Spain and Continental Portugal, comprisin ...

. Chromosomes n=8. (3 subsections: ''Majora'', ''Sicula'', ''Hispanica'') *Section ''Orontium'': two species, also from the Mediterranean.

Chromosome A chromosome is a package of DNA containing part or all of the genetic material of an organism. In most chromosomes, the very long thin DNA fibers are coated with nucleosome-forming packaging proteins; in eukaryotic cells, the most import ...

number=8. The species in this section, including the section type species '' Antirrhinum orontium'' (lesser snapdragon) are often treated in the genus '' Misopates''. *Section ''Saerorhinum'': 15 small flowered

species, mostly

annual plant An annual plant is a plant that completes its life cycle, from germination to the production of seeds, within one growing season, and then dies. Globally, 6% of all plant species and 15% of herbaceous plants (excluding trees and shrubs) are ...

s and mostly native to

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, though species are found from

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

Baja California Sur Baja California Sur, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California Sur, is a state in Mexico. It is the 31st and last state to be admitted, in 1974. It is also the second least populated Mexican state and the ninth-largest state by ...

and as far east as

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

Tetraploid Polyploidy is a condition in which the cells of an organism have more than two paired sets of ( homologous) chromosomes. Most species whose cells have nuclei (eukaryotes) are diploid, meaning they have two complete sets of chromosomes, one fro ...

(n=15-16). Like other authors, Thompson placed ''A. cyathiferum'' in this section, but Oyama and Baum, following earlier authors, suggest that it should be reclassified in genus '' Pseudorontium'', while '' Mohavea'' should be included. Vargas ''et al.'', strongly recommending segregation of the New World species suggest that the 14 species originally recognised by Sutton (1988) more properly belong to '' Sairocarpus'' (11 species), '' Howelliella'' (1 species), and '' Neogarrhinum'' (2 species). Other authors would also include '' Galvezia glabrata'', '' Galvezia juncea'', '' Galvezia rupicola'' and '' Galvezia speciosa''. None of the names originally allocated to this section are now accepted.

Snapdragons

While ''Antirrhinum majus'' is the plant that is usually meant by the term of "snapdragon" if used on its own, many other species in the genus, and in the family Scrophulariaceae more widely, have common names that include the word "snapdragon". For example, '' Antirrhinum molle'' is known as "dwarf snapdragon" in the UK.

Species

Antirrhinum tortuosum ''Antirrhinum tortuosum'' is a species of plant in the family Plantaginaceae. References

Antirrhinum, tortuosum Flora of Malta {{Plantaginaceae-stub ...

'' *'' Antirrhinum valentinum''

Etymology

The name "''Antirrhinum''" is derived from the

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

''antirrhinon'' which in turn is derived from ''anti'' "opposite, counterfeiting", and ''rhis'' "nose" ( GEN ''rhinos''); from its resemblance to an animal's mouth.

Ecology

Snapdragons are short-lived perennial plants that survive well in cold seasons but are often replanted each spring and considered

s. They do best in full or partial sun, in well-drained soil since their roots are susceptible to rotting (although they do require regular watering). They are classified commercially as a range of heights: ''midget'' or ''dwarf'' (), ''medium'' () and ''tall'' (). Removing the dead flowers, referred to as deadheading, is important to help them to continuously produce beautiful flowers throughout their growing season. They are susceptible to ethylene gas, so removing dead flowers and keeping them away from ripe fruits or vegetables also helps them bloom longer. They grow during their peak seasons of April to June and August to October in the Northern Hemisphere and bloom in a variety of colors such as white, yellow, orange, red, purple, pink, including multicolored patterns. They are ecologically diverse, particularly the New World species (''Saerorhinum'').

Cultivation

The snapdragon is an important garden plant, widely cultivated from tropical to temperate zones as a bedding, rockery, herbaceous border or container plant.

Cultivar A cultivar is a kind of Horticulture, cultivated plant that people have selected for desired phenotypic trait, traits and which retains those traits when Plant propagation, propagated. Methods used to propagate cultivars include division, root a ...

s have showy white, crimson, or yellow bilabiate flowers (with two lips). It is also important as a

model organism A model organism is a non-human species that is extensively studied to understand particular biological phenomena, with the expectation that discoveries made in the model organism will provide insight into the workings of other organisms. Mo ...

in botanical research, and its

genome A genome is all the genetic information of an organism. It consists of nucleotide sequences of DNA (or RNA in RNA viruses). The nuclear genome includes protein-coding genes and non-coding genes, other functional regions of the genome such as ...

has been studied in detail.

Genetic studies

''Antirrhinum'' is a genus that has been used from the earliest genetic studies of

Gregor Mendel Gregor Johann Mendel Order of Saint Augustine, OSA (; ; ; 20 July 1822 – 6 January 1884) was an Austrian Empire, Austrian biologist, meteorologist, mathematician, Augustinians, Augustinian friar and abbot of St Thomas's Abbey, Brno, St. Thom ...

and

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English Natural history#Before 1900, naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all speci ...

and was used as a model by Erwin Baur. Together with closely related genera, it has become a model organism for the investigation of the genetic basis of plant development, particularly floral development. The genus is a typical example of

incomplete dominance In genetics, dominance is the phenomenon of one variant (allele) of a gene on a chromosome masking or overriding the effect of a different variant of the same gene on the other copy of the chromosome. The first variant is termed dominant and ...

by the red

allele An allele is a variant of the sequence of nucleotides at a particular location, or Locus (genetics), locus, on a DNA molecule. Alleles can differ at a single position through Single-nucleotide polymorphism, single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP), ...

with the

anthocyanin Anthocyanins (), also called anthocyans, are solubility, water-soluble vacuole, vacuolar pigments that, depending on their pH, may appear red, purple, blue, or black. In 1835, the German pharmacist Ludwig Clamor Marquart named a chemical compou ...

pigment. Any cross between red-flowered and white-flowered snapdragons, give an intermediate and

heterozygous Zygosity (the noun, zygote, is from the Greek "yoked," from "yoke") () is the degree to which both copies of a chromosome or gene have the same genetic sequence. In other words, it is the degree of similarity of the alleles in an organism. Mos ...

phenotype In genetics, the phenotype () is the set of observable characteristics or traits of an organism. The term covers the organism's morphology (physical form and structure), its developmental processes, its biochemical and physiological propert ...

with pink flowers, that carries both the dominant and recessive alleles. Several species of ''Antirrhinum'' are self-incompatible, meaning that a plant cannot be fertilised by its own pollen. Self-incompatibility in the genus has been studied since the early 1900s. Self-incompatibility in ''Antirrhinum'' species is controlled gametophytically and shares many important features with self-incompatibility systems in

Rosaceae Rosaceae (), the rose family, is a family of flowering plants that includes 4,828 known species in 91 genera. The name is derived from the type genus '' Rosa''. The family includes herbs, shrubs, and trees. Most species are deciduous, but som ...

and

Solanaceae Solanaceae (), commonly known as the nightshades, is a family of flowering plants in the order Solanales. It contains approximately 2,700 species, several of which are used as agricultural crops, medicinal plants, and ornamental plants. Many me ...

Uses

In addition to growing the plants for cut flowers, the seeds have been used to extract edible oils, particularly in

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

, while the leaves and flowers have been considered to possess antiphlogistic (anti-inflammatory) properties and have been used in poultices. A green dye has also been extracted from the flowers.

Gallery

File:Yellow-Snapdragon-Flower(Antirrhinum majus) 08.jpg, Yellow snapdragon flower File:Antirrhinum majus-Flower 01.jpg, ''Antirrhinum majus'' flower File:Pink Snapdragon Flower-Antirrhinum majus 02.jpg, Pink snapdragon flower File:Antirrhinum majus-Flower 03.jpg, ''Antirrhinum majus'' flower File:Pink Snapdragon Flower 02.jpg, Pink snapdragon flower File:White-Snapdragon-Flower(Antirrhinum majus) 05.jpg, White snapdragon flower File:Yellow-Snapdragon-Flower(Antirrhinum majus) 03.jpg, Yellow snapdragon flower File:Antirrhinum majus-Flower 02.jpg, ''Antirrhinum majus'' flower File:Antirrhinum white.jpg, Variety in

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

File:Antirrhinum-2.jpg, Variety in Pakistan File:Yellow-Snapdragon-Flower(Antirrhinum majus) 05.jpg, Yellow snapdragon flower File:Pink Snapdragon Flower-Antirrhinum majus 01.jpg, Pink snapdragon flower File:White-Snapdragon-Flower(Antirrhinum majus) 03.jpg, White snapdragon flower File:Yellow-Snapdragon-Flower(Antirrhinum majus) 02.jpg, Yellow snapdragon flower File:Pink Snapdragon Flower 03.jpg, Pink snapdragon flower File:White-Snapdragon-Flower(Antirrhinum majus) 01.jpg, White snapdragon flower File:Antirrhinum majus-Flower 04.jpg, ''Antirrhinum majus'' flower File:Antirrhinum-3.jpg, Variety in Pakistan File:Yellow-Snapdragon-Flower(Antirrhinum majus) 04.jpg, Yellow snapdragon flower File:Antirrhinum-4.jpg, Variety in Pakistan File:Antirrhinum-5.jpg, Variety in Pakistan File:Yellow-Snapdragon-Flower(Antirrhinum majus) 07.jpg, Yellow snapdragon flower File:Pink Snapdragon Flower 01.jpg, Pink snapdragon flower File:White-Snapdragon-Flower(Antirrhinum majus) 04.jpg, White snapdragon flower File:Yellow-Snapdragon-Flower(Antirrhinum majus) 06.jpg, Yellow snapdragon flower File:Pink Snapdragon Flower-Antirrhinum majus 03.jpg, Pink snapdragon flower File:Antirrhinum-01.jpg, Antirrhinum in

File:Antirrhinum majus 6.jpg, Snapdragon cultivar in

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

References

Sources

* Sutton, D.A. (1988) A Revision of the Tribe Antirrhineae. Oxford: OUP. * Rothmaler W. 1956. Taxonomische Monographie der Gattung Antirrhinum. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin, Germany. * * * *

External links

The Plant ListThe Genus Antirrhinum (Snapdragon): A Flowering Plant Model for Evolution and Development''Antirrhinum majus'' genetic and phenotypic database
{{Authority control Plantaginaceae genera Extant Pliocene first appearances Plant models Anthocyanins Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus