page_title: Antirrhineae
section_title: Description and uses
hierarchical_section_title: Antirrhineae / Description and uses
caption_attribution_description: ქართული: გადაღებულია იერუსალიმში Taken in Juerusalem
context_page_description: The Antirrhineae are one of the 12 tribes of the family Plantaginaceae. It contains the toadflax relatives, such as snapdragons. They are probably most closely related to the turtlehead tribe and/or a large and badly resolved core group of their family including plants as diverse as water-starworts, foxgloves, and speedwell. The Antirrhineae include about 30 genera with roughly 320 species, of which 150 are in genus Linaria. The type genus is Antirrhinum L.
context_section_description: Most Antirrhineae are herbaceous, short-lived, perennial or annual plants growing at most about a metre/yard tall when in full flower; the maximum height of most species is half as much or less. Some are prostrate or twining. The flowers are often conspicuous, tubular with a basal appendix (spur, gibbous, or saccate) containing nectaries, and may be of any color, though yellow and blue/purple hues are most common. Multicolored flowers are a common occurrence in this tribe; a typical pattern is one conspicuous whitish or bright yellow or reddish spot at the lower outer edge of the flower tube, looking like a protruding tongue.  Other characters include poricidal dehiscent capsule fruit, and the possession of iridoid glycosides.
  The Antirrhineae are not noted as food- or fodder plants, probably due to the iridoid content making them less than palatable. However, the tribe does not seem to contain highly poisonous plants, either; rather, use in folk medicine has been documented for a few species. While e.g. common toadflax (Linaria vulgaris) is credited with a range of uses by European herbalists, as of the 2010s, little scientific study has been made and the traditionally attested medical properties of the Antirrhineae are by and large unremarkable by standards of the Plantaginaceae, which abound with species of major pharmacological interest. The chief human use of the present tribe is for the flowers, primarily as ornamental plants in gardening. Colloquially called "the snapdragon", Antirrhinum majus is probably the single most widely known member of the Antirrhineae by far.
  A. majus cultivars can today be encountered essentially anywhere between Earth's polar circles, whether grown in a range of sizes and colours by hobbyists or field-scale for sale as cut flowers. In the hottest parts of the globe, it dies after one flowering, and in arid regions, other species may be more important, but otherwise it is extremely adaptable, and in warm-temperate climates, individual plants may survive for several years. The readiness with which A. majus flower colour and shape mutate and can be crossbred has led to the establishments of unusual (e.g. peloric) cultivars, as well as to making this species one of the first model organisms of genetics and helping uniting the theories of Darwin and Mendel. It remains a key model organism today in fields such as plant developmental genetics. Common toadflax has become established as a model organism more recently; while it may be an invasive nuisance weed in agriculture, like other toadflaxes and snapdragons, its attractive flowers make it useful as a wildflower. At present however, the other members of this family are generally only of minor or localized interest.
caption: A field of common snapdragons (Antirrhinum majus) grown in Jerusalem
exif: {"Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D90", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Ver.1.00", "Image DateTime": "2012:05:02 10:04:25", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "228", "GPS GPSVersionID": "[2, 2, 0, 0]", "Image GPSInfo": "34992", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "300", "Thumbnail YResolution": "300", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "35120", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "8847", "Thumbnail YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/320", "EXIF FNumber": "9/2", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Unidentified", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "400", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2012:05:02 10:04:25", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2012:05:02 10:04:25", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, auto mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "60", "EXIF SubSecTime": "00", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "00", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "00", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "4288", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2848", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "34962", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CVAPattern": "[0, 2, 0, 2, 1, 2, 0, 1]", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "90", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "Low gain up", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}