2. Scrophularia L. (figwort)

Plants perennial herbs, fibrous-rooted. Stems 1 to several from the base, erect or strongly ascending, unbranched or few-branched, strongly 4-angled, glabrous or moderately pubescent with minute, mostly glandular hairs, at least toward the tip. Leaves opposite, short- to long-petiolate. Stipules absent (note that short, leafy axillary branches are frequently produced). Leaf blades lanceolate to ovate, variously tapered or angled to rounded, truncate, or shallowly cordate at the base, angled or tapered to a sharply pointed tip, the margins sharply toothed, the upper surface glabrous or sparsely and minutely hairy along the main veins or toward the base, the undersurface sparsely to moderately and minutely hairy, the venation pinnate, but the lowermost pair of lateral veins sometimes slightly more prominent than the others. Inflorescences terminal, elongate panicles of usually numerous flowers, the lowermost branches usually with pairs of bracts resembling reduced leaves, the flowers mostly long-stalked, the stalk with a pair of minute, linear bractlets at the base, the axes, flower stalks, and bractlets usually with dark, stalked glands. Calyces actinomorphic, 5-lobed to about the midpoint, the lobes ovate to broadly ovate, with irregular margins. Corollas bilabiate, reddish brown or partially yellowish green, the tube urn-shaped to broadly urn-shaped, the upper lip more or less straight, about as long as to slightly longer than the lower lip, notched at the tip, the lower lip strongly 3-lobed, the lateral lobes broadly ovate to nearly circular, more or less straight, the central lobe, triangular-ovate, strongly reflexed. Stamens 4, not exserted, the free portions of the filaments short, the anthers appearing 1-celled, yellow. Staminode 1, well differentiated, consisting of a filament with a flattened, expanded tip, oriented under the upper lip. Ovary broadly ovoid to nearly globose, 2-locular. Style usually longer than the ovary, usually slightly exserted, the stigma 1, unlobed, capitate. Fruits with the body ovoid to broadly ovoid or nearly globose, broadly angled to tapered to a beaked tip. Seeds 0.6–0.9 mm long, oblong-ellipsoid, turgid, unwinged, the surface with a network of ridges, dark brown. About 200 species, North America, South America, Caribbean Islands, Europe, Asia, Africa.