Family Scrophulariaceae (Snapdragon Family).
Tiny white snapdragon flowers with a racy purple stripe on the top.
Gray puts this in the genus Linaria, so we turn to Britton, who describes it thus: “A low glandular branched annual, with solitary, axillary, long-peduncled, very small flowers, the palate not closing the throat of the corolla, the leaves linear.” The leaves and stems are covered with small hairs.
In 1951 this was a very rare plant here, but it has since found comfortable homes in several different urban settings. Many European imports will colonize sidewalk cracks and such unlikely footholds; the Dwarf Snapdragon, however, seems to live nowhere else. It resents competition, and looks for a home where nothing else will grow. These were growing in gravel at the old Allegheny County Airport, where they were blooming in late June.
