Linaria melampyroides is a species of flowering plant in the genus Linaria, native to the Transbaikal region in eastern Siberia. Linaria was traditionally placed in the family Scrophulariaceae. Phylogenetic analysis has now placed it in the vastly expanded family Plantaginaceae. The members of this genus are known in English as toadflax, a name shared with several related genera. The “toad” in toadflax may relate to the plants having historically been used to treat bubonic plague, a false link having been drawn between the words bubo (an infected, swollen lymph node) and Bufo (a genus of toads). The scientific name Linaria means “resembling linum” (flax), which the foliage of some species superficially resembles.
