Slender, erect, glabrous annual 20–70 cm high. Short non-flowering shoots with leaves in whorls of 3, elliptic to ovate, 0.6–1 cm long, 1.5–2.5 mm wide; flowering shoots with erect, alternate leaves, linear, 1–4 cm long, 0.5–1 mm wide. Inflorescence few–many-flowered, at first short and dense, elongating in fruit; bracts 2–4 mm long; pedicels 3–6 mm long. Sepals fused only at base, 3–4 mm long; corolla 6–9 mm long, purple-violet with whitish pubescent palate closing mouth, spur backwards-directed from tube, 7–9 mm long, upper lip pointed outwards with 2 narrow elongate lobes, lower lip shorter with recurved lobes. Capsule with 2 globose lobes, 2.2–2.5 mm long; seeds fimbriate. Flowers spring.
MuM, Wim, VVP, VRiv, RobP, GipP, OtP, Gold, CVU, NIS, EGL, EGU, HSF, HNF, Strz, VAlp. Also naturalised Qld, NSW. Native to southern Europe. Widespread weed of grassland and woodland communities, chiefly in disturbed sites along roadsides and railway lines, and in pasture etc.
Source:
Barker, W.R. (1999). Scrophulariaceae. In: Walsh, N.G.; Entwisle, T.J., Flora of Victoria Vol. 4, Cornaceae to Asteraceae, pp. 483–528. Inkata Press, Melbourne.
