1. Scrophularia lanceolata Pursh (American figwort, early figwort)

Pl. 559 f–h; Map 2604

Stems 70–150(–200) cm long, with 4 blunt angles and flat to slightly concave sides, moderately pubescent with minute, glandular hairs, at least toward the tip. Petioles of the larger leaves 1–4 cm long, winged toward the tip, grooved on the upper side, the margins of the groove with pale, slightly thickened ridges. Leaf blades 4–20 cm long, lanceolate to narrowly ovate, variously tapered or angled to rounded, truncate, or shallowly cordate at the base, sharply, irregularly, often coarsely, and sometimes doubly toothed along the margins, the upper surface glabrous, the undersurface glabrous or sparsely and minutely glandular-hairy along the main veins. Inflorescences tending to be cylindric in shape, mostly 4–8 cm wide, the main branches ascending to strongly ascending. Calyces 2–4 mm long. Corollas 7–12 mm long, yellowish green, usually with pale reddish-brown to brown mottling, sometimes appearing pale reddish brown except for the inner surface of the lowermost lobe. Staminode with the strongly expanded tip yellowish green (often drying darker), the tip more or less fan-shaped, wider than long to slightly longer than wide. Fruits 6–10 mm long, the body ovoid, tapered at the tip, the surface dull at maturity. 2n=92–96. May–June.

Uncommon, known only from a historical collection from Jackson county (northern U.S. south to Virginia, Oklahoma, and California; Canada). Habitat unknown, but presumably the edge of an upland forest.

This species is known in Missouri only from the 1912 collection by B. F. Bush. The specimen was collected in Atherton (now part of the Kansas City metropolitan area) and the label listed only “dry ground” as the habitat.