Figwort

(Scrophularia lanceolata)

Figwort (Scrophularia lanceolata Pursh)

Identification: Flower highly modified, green and shiny on the outside, brown on the inside. Petals reduced to a single, small, bilobed upper petal. Flower with 4 normal stamens and a single wide yellow, sterile stamen (see drawing). Flowers arranged in a highly branched, terminal array (panicle). Stem square, smooth. Leaves large, in opposite pairs, with long petioles. Leaf petiole long and outer margin coarsely toothed. Plant 3 to 8 feet in height.

Distribution: Minnesota in the west to New England in the east, southward to Virginia and Kansas. Also occurs in most of western North America.

Habitat: Figwort is found in woods and along roadsides.

Flowering period: May to July.

Similar Species: The curiously modified flowers in the terminal panicle are highly distinctive. The closely related Maryland Figwort (Scrophularia marilandica) (not treated here) has a purple sterile stamen and the outside of the flower is dull, not shiny.