Butter and eggs

Description

Butter and eggs, also called common toadflax and yellow toadflax, is an exotic, colorful weed. It is native to Europe and Asia. It was intentionally introduced and is now common in North America. The date of its introduction is uncertain, as original sources have different stories. One account suggests it was first introduced by a Welsh Quaker who came to Delaware with William Penn and then spread from colonial gardens. Another source mentions it was first introduced into the northeastern United States (New England) sometime before 1672. The proliferation of Linaria vulgaris in mid-Atlantic coastal settlements by the mid-1700s is noted as representing the earliest recorded invasion by a nonnative plant in North America.

Butter and eggs is an easily recognized, 12″ to 36″ tall, erect, perennial forb that rises on 1 to 25 stems from a taproot up to 40″ long and and shallow, creeping rhizomes up to 12′ or more long. It aggressively forms colonies.

The stems are erect, often branched near the top, leafy, and hairless below the inflorescence.

The leaves are numerous, crowded, and alternate, but closely spaced so that they may appear opposite or even whorled. They are linear, ¾″ to 2″ long, and 1 ⁄16″ to ¼″ wide. They are stalkless but are narrowed below to a stalk-like base. A single prominent vein runs from the base to the tip of the blade. The upper and lower surfaces are pale green and hairless. The margins are untoothed.

The inflorescence is an unbranched, elongated, dense, spike-like cluster (raceme) at the end of the stem.

The flowers are crowded, snapdragon-like, and ¾″ to 1½″ long including the spur. There are 5 white to yellow petals fused into a corolla tube with an upper and a lower lip. The upper lip bends sharply upward and is then divided into 2 spreading lobes. The lower lip is divided into 2 lobes that bend downward and a rounded palate that obstructs the opening of the corolla tube. There is a long nectar spur at the base of the corolla that hangs downward. The upper and lower lips are white to yellow, the palate is yellow at the base to orange at the tip. The upper lip is longer than the lower lip. There are 4 stamens.

The fruit is a round to oval, 5 ⁄16″ to ½″ long capsule with numerous winged seeds.

Height

12″ to 36″

Flower Color

Creamy white, yellow, and orange

Similar Species

Habitat

Dry. Fields, roadsides, waste places. Full sun.

Ecology

Flowering

May to September

Pests and Diseases

Use

Butter and eggs was traditionally used as a garden ornamental, a medicinal herb, and a source of yellow dye. Today it is more often a wildflower, and it is considered a weed wherever it occurs, even in its native range.