Erect annual 15–60 cm high, sparsely to moderately villous in the lower parts with eglandular hairs, glandular-pubescent (sometimes with longer eglandular hairs) and sometimes scabrous in upper parts. Leaves linear to lanceolate or narrow-elliptic, 1.5–6.5 cm long, 2–10 mm wide, margins entire and recurved. Racemes loose; bracts leaf-like but smaller; pedicels 1–3 mm long. Sepals 8–12 mm long; corolla 12–15 mm long, white with a blue, purple or pink flush at base and similarly coloured lines inside at base of the lower lip, or violet and red, or pink and purple. Capsule obliquely ovoid, 7–9 mm long, dark brown, glandular-hairy. Flowers throughout year.
VVP, VRiv, GipP, Gold. Also naturalised WA, SA, Qld, NSW. Probably native to the Mediterranean region, but widely naturalised through Europe. Cultivated, recorded as naturalised near Melbourne, Bendigo and Wodonga.
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.
