Snapdragon General Information
Antirrhinum majus L.
The latin name derives from the form of the flower: anti = front and
rhin = snout
Common names:
- English: snapdragon, lion's mouth, bunny mouth, rabbit's mouth,
toad's mouth, dragon's mouth
- Danish: løvemule, torskefláb, gabeflab
- Dutch: Leeuwenbekken, hazenmuil, schaapsmuilkens, gapers,
gaperkes, gaberkes, kousen-en-shukes, schoentjes, tamme orant,
arme-zünderskruud
- German: Löwenmäulchen, Großes Löwenmaul (see
also the special list of
German names for
snapdragons).
- Finnish: Leijonankidat
- French: gueule de lion, gueule de loup, mufle de veau, grand
muflier, mufle, pantoufle de Notre-Dame
- Italian: bocca di leone, erba strega, bocca do lovo, scarpette
d'a Madonna
- Japanese: kingyosou,
- Lituanian: levãzandis
- Lettlandian: lauvmutite
- Polish: Bez polskiej nazwy, lwia paszczeka
- Rumanian: gura-leului, gura-mielului, ghergelita
- Serbian: lavovo rila, zevalica
- Spanish: boca de dragon
- Swedish: lejonmuler, lejongap
- Other: Anf Ath Thor, Aslan Aghazi, Grognon D'Via, Halq As Sabe,
Lisan As Sabe, Vak Vak Cicegi
Description: Perennial plant. Root with many branches. Shoot
perpendicular or
raising itself in a curve. Shoot becomes woody at the base.
Size is 20 to 70 cm. Shoot is naked at the base and carries
gland hairs further upwards. Leaves pairwise opposite. Their form
is elongated, pointed, smooth rimmed with short stem and nude.
Flowers are sitting on a very short stem. Inflorescence at the end
of the shoot. Flowers point in all directions. Bracts for
are much shorter than the flowers. Sepals egg shaped, about 5mm length.
They are much shorter than the petals. Sepals 2 to 3 cm length, fused,
with a wide tube, purpur colored. The tupe is lighter colored or white.
Inside the mouth yellow colored. Seed capsule is oblique egg shaped and
12 to 17 mm long.
Medical uses:Diuretic, scurvy, liver, tumor, detergent, astringent
Distribution: Found on hot rocks and walls. Common cultured
garden plant. Natural distribution: Southern Europe, Syria, Northern
Africa.
The normal typus or "wild type" of Antirrhinum majus is defined
to be the "Sippe 50" strain. Pictures of "Sippe 50" plants, inflorescences
and flowers can be found in our archive in many instances where "Sippe 50"
is compared to some mutant.
This page is part of the
Snapdragon Home Page.
The URL of this page is
http://www.mpiz-koeln.mpg.de/~stueber/snapdragon/snapdragon_general.html
If you have any comments, additions or corrections to this page of general
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For personal comments please write to the author(s) of this page or to
Kurt Stueber.
This page has last been modified on August 27, 1997.
