Differing from Antirrhinum L. in being annual, with markedly unequal calyx lobes all longer than corolla tube; seeds distinctly dorsi-ventrally asymmetrical (not ± radially symmetrical), compressed. 

Seven species in Europe and Mediterranean area (incl. Atlantic islands), S. W. Asia (incl. Arabia), Himalaya and tropical E. Africa. The genus is centered in the W. Mediterranean; several species are more or less narrow endemics, while one (ours) is a widespread weedy taxon divisible into two, more or less geographically separated subspecies.Represented in Pakistan by 1 species. 

The seven species accepted by Sutton (l.c. 1988) are all defined primarily on the basis of seed morphology. The colour of the corolla (white, pink or purplish, or wholly or partly yellow) is also of taxonomic significance. In many previous accounts of the genus, only a single species (M. orontium s.l.) has been recognized). 

Davis (l.c.) additionally distinguished Misopates from Antirrhinum by the adaxial loculus of the capsule being indehiscent; Sutton (l.c.), however, states that it opens by a single apical pore, simultaneously with or somewhat earlier than the 2 abaxial pores, as in Antirrhinum. The smooth dorsal surface of the seed, mentioned by him as a further diagnostic character against Antirrhinum, only applies to M. orontium subsp. orontium and not to the taxon occurring in Pakistan. 

In the APG III classification (2009) Misopates is included in the expanded family Plantaginaceae.