Plantaginaceae, the plantain family, is a large, diverse family of flowering plants in the order Lamiales that includes common flowers such as snapdragon and foxglove. It is unrelated to the banana-like fruit also called "plantain." In older classifications, Plantaginaceae was the only family of the order Plantaginales, but numerous phylogenetic studies, summarized by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group, have demonstrated that this taxon should be included within Lamiales.

Overview

The plantain family as traditionally circumscribed consisted of only three genera: ''

Bougueria ''Plantago nubicola'' is a plant found in Peru, Bolivia, and Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area o ...

'', ''

Littorella ''Littorella'' is a genus of two to three species of aquatic plants. Many plants live their entire lives submersed, and reproduce by stolons, but some are only underwater for part of the year, and flower when they are not underwater. Classific ...

'', and '' Plantago''. However phylogenetic research has indicated that Plantaginaceae ''sensu stricto'' (in the strict sense) were nested within Scrophulariaceae (but forming a group that did not include the type genus of that family, '' Scrophularia''). Although Veronicaceae (1782) is the oldest family name for this group, Plantaginaceae (1789) is a conserved name under the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature (ICBN) and thus has priority over any earlier family name for a family including '' Plantago''. Furthermore, the ICBN does not consider family names published before 1789 to be names eligible for conservation, thus ruling out Veronicaceae. The name Antirrhinaceae has been proposed for conservation over Plantaginaceae. In the meantime, the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group has accepted the name Plantaginaceae. However, Olmstead (2003) chose to use the name Veronicaceae, a later synonym. A group of genera including '' Lindernia'' has now been segregated as the family Linderniaceae, which is recognized by Haston ''et al.'' 2007 (also known as LAPG II) as "Post-APG II family". Plantaginaceae ''sensu lato'' (in the broad sense) are a diverse, cosmopolitan family, occurring mostly in temperate zones. The group consists of

herb In general use, herbs are a widely distributed and widespread group of plants, excluding vegetables and other plants consumed for macronutrients, with savory or aromatic properties that are used for flavoring and garnishing food, for medicinal ...

shrub A shrub (often also called a bush) is a small-to-medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees ...

s and also a few

aquatic plant Aquatic plants are plants that have adapted to living in aquatic environments (saltwater or freshwater). They are also referred to as hydrophytes or macrophytes to distinguish them from algae and other microphytes. A macrophyte is a plant that ...

s with roots (such as the genus '' Callitriche''). As the family is so diverse, its circumscription is difficult to establish. The

leaves A leaf (plural, : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant plant stem, stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", wh ...

are spiral to opposite and simple to compound. Unusual in Lamiales is the absence of vertical partitions in the heads of the

gland In animals, a gland is a group of cells in an animal's body that synthesizes substances (such as hormones) for release into the bloodstream (endocrine gland) or into cavities inside the body or its outer surface (exocrine gland). Structure De ...

ular hairs. The structure and form of the flowers is variable. Some genera are 4-merous (i.e., with 4 sepals and 4

petal Petals are modified Leaf, leaves that surround the reproductive parts of flowers. They are often advertising coloration, brightly colored or unusually shaped to attract pollinators. All of the petals of a flower are collectively known as the ''c ...

s), such as ''Aragoa'' (but this one has 5 sepals); others are 5- to 8-merous, such as ''Sibthorpia''. The flowers of most genera are polysymmetric. The

corolla Corolla may refer to: *Corolla (botany), the petals of a flower, considered as a unit *Toyota Corolla, an automobile model name * Corolla (headgear), an ancient headdress in the form of a circlet or crown * ''Corolla'' (gastropod), a genus of moll ...

is often two-lipped. In some taxa, the

androecium The stamen (plural ''stamina'' or ''stamens'') is the pollen-producing reproductive organ of a flower. Collectively the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filam ...

is formed before the corolla. The fruit is a capsule that

dehisces Dehiscence is the splitting of a mature plant structure along a built-in line of weakness to release its contents. This is common among fruits, anthers and sporangia. Sometimes this involves the complete detachment of a part; structures that op ...

through the partitions between the cells.

Genera

The enlarged Plantaginaceae consists of 94 genera and about 1,900 species. The largest genus is ''Veronica'', with about 450 species. ''Veronica'' also includes the genera ''Hebe'', ''Parahebe'' and ''Synthyris'', formerly often treated as distinct. All genera of Plantaginaceae were formerly included in Scrophulariaceae except where otherwise stated. Although GRIN includes '' Lafuentea'' Lag. in the tribe Antirrhineae, in the phylogenetic analysis of Fernández-Mazuecos ''et al.'' (2013) it was a sister to the Antirrhineae, as also noted by Albach (2005). For the time being it should be considered an

outgroup Outgroup may refer to: * Outgroup (cladistics), an evolutionary-history concept * Outgroup (sociology), a social group {{disambig ...

Excluded genera

References

Bibliography

Vargas P, JA Rosselló, R Oyama, J Güemes. 2004 Molecular evidence for naturalness of genera in the tribe Antirrhineae (Scrophulariaceae) and three independent evolutionary lineages from the New World and the Old. Plant Syst Evol 249:151–172.

External links

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{{Taxonbar, from=Q1748235 Lamiales families