Gratiola L.

Brooklimes

Latin gratia — thanks, referring to the medicinal potency of G. officinalis.

Erect or creeping herbs. Leaves opposite, entire or toothed, mostly stalkless. Flowers solitary and axillary. Calyx 5-lobed. Corolla 2-lipped, the upper lip smaller, tube broad, yellow or white. Stamens 5, 2 fertile, remaining 3 absent or sterile. Fruit capsule with 4 valves containing numerous small seeds.

Rarely cultivated plant, grown mostly as a medicinal curiosity since all parts are poisonous.

Seed or division.

Extracts were once used for a range of medicinal purposes.

Herbs with thin leaves; sepals fused for less than half their length; bracteoles present between calyx and bract; corolla 2-lipped, cylindrical; fertile stamens 2.

About 25 species from Australasia, Eurasia and the Americas. Australia has 5 species.

Source: Spencer, R. (2002). Scrophulariaceae. In: Spencer, R.. Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 4. Flowering plants. Dicotyledons. Part 3. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.

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kingdom Plantae
phylum   Tracheophyta
class    Magnoliopsida
superorder     Asteranae
order      Lamiales
family       Plantaginaceae
Higher taxa
Subordinate taxa
species         Gratiola officinalis L.