Common Name: trailing snapdragon
Type: Herbaceous perennial
Family: Plantaginaceae
Native Range: Southern Europe
Zone: 6 to 9
Height: 0.00 to 0.25 feet
Spread: 1.00 to 2.00 feet
Bloom Time: June to July
Bloom Description: Pale yellow with deep yellow throat and light purple veins
Sun: Full sun to part shade
Water: Medium
Maintenance: Low
Suggested Use: Annual, Ground Cover, Naturalize
Flower: Showy
Culture
Best grown in sandy, organically rich, medium moisture, well-drained loams in full sun to part shade. Best flowering performance is in cool summer climates. Often grown as an annual in the St. Louis area where plants are not reliably winter hardy. If grown as a perennial in St. Louis, site in a protected location and provide a winter mulch (e.g., straw or evergreen boughs). Plants are evergreen in warm winter climates. May self-seed in optimum growing conditions. If plants do not survive winter, self-seeding may keep the species in the garden.
Noteworthy Characteristics
Asarina procumbens, sometimes commonly called creeping snapdragon, is native to the Iberian Peninsula. it is a procumbent perennial noted for its trailing stems and snapdragon-like flowers. It was once included in the snapdragon genus as Antirrhinum asarina. It typically grows to only 2-3” tall and spreads by trailing stems to 24” wide. Reniform (kidney-shaped), coarsely dentate, gray-green leaves to 2” long. Two-lipped, snapdragon-like flowers are pale yellow with deep yellow throats and light purple veining. Flowers bloom singly in the leaf axils in summer.
Genus name comes from the Spanish vernacular name for an Antirrhinum.
Specific epithet means spreading.
Problems
No serious insect or disease problems.
Uses
Rock gardens, cascade over stone walls or grow as an annual. Spills well out of large containers.