Antirrhinum is a genus of plants commonly known as snapdragons or dragon flower from the flowers' fancied resemblance to the face of a dragon that opens and closes its mouth when laterally squeezed (thus the 'snap'). The antirrhinums used to be treated as the family Scrophulariaceae, but studies of DNA sequences have led to the inclusion of Antirrhinum in a vastly enlarged family Plantaginaceae. The word "Antirrhinum" is derived from αντίρῥῑνόν "antirrhinon" which in turn was derived from Greek anti (αντί), "like," and rhis (ῥίς, ινοϛ), "nose", inus (-ινοϛ), "of" or "pertaining to". The name literally means "like a nose" in Ancient Greek and probably refers to the nose-like capsule in its mature state.
The taxonomy of this genus is unresolved at present. At one extreme, the USDA PLANTS database recognises only the Old World species of sect. Antirrhinum in the genus, listing only the Garden Snapdragon A. majus (the only species in the section naturalised in North America). At the other, Thompson (1988) places 36 species in the genus; many modern botanists accept this circumscription. New species also continue to be discovered (see e.g. Romo et al., 1995).
The taxonomy of this genus is unresolved at present. At one extreme, the USDA PLANTS database recognises only the Old World species of sect. Antirrhinum in the genus, listing only the Garden Snapdragon A. majus (the only species in the section naturalised in North America). At the other, Thompson (1988) places 36 species in the genus; many modern botanists accept this circumscription. New species also continue to be discovered (see e.g. Romo et al., 1995).
No comments:
Post a Comment