Collinsia
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| Collinsia | ||||||||||||
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| Missing image ChineseHouses.jpg Collinsia heterophylla Purple Chinese Houses (Collinsia heterophylla) | ||||||||||||
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Collinsia antonina |
Collinsia is a genus of annual flowering plants, that was traditionally placed in the snapdragon family Scrophulariaceae, consisting of the Blue-eyed Marys and the Chinese Houses. Due to genetic research, it has now been placed in a much enlarged family Plantaginaceae.
The genus is endemic to North America, and is named in honour of Zacchaeus Collins, a Philadelphia botanist of the late eighteenth/early nineteenth century. There are about 20 species, many of them found in California.
Two species, Collinsia parviflora and Collinsia violacea, the Smallflower Blue-eyed Mary and the Violet Blue-eyed Mary, had medicinal uses among American Indian peoples.