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berteroa, false madwort, hoary-alyssum

hoary alyssum, hoary false alyssum

Habit Annuals or biennials [perennials]; not scapose; pubescent, trichomes stellate, mixed with simple ones. Plants densely pubescent, trichomes appressed, stellate mixed with simple ones.
Stems

erect [ascending], usually branched distally.

simple or few from base, (2–)3–8(–11) dm.

Leaves

basal and cauline;

petiolate or sessile;

basal not rosulate, petiolate, blade margins entire or repand [dentate, sinuate];

cauline (middle and distal) sessile.

Basal leaves

(withered by flowering): blade oblanceolate, (2.5–)3.5–8(–10) cm, base cuneate or attenuate, apex obtuse.

Cauline leaves

blade apex acute or obtuse.

Racemes

(corymbose, several-flowered, dense), considerably elongated in fruit.

Flowers

sepals erect-ascending [suberect, spreading], oblong, lateral pair not saccate basally;

petals usually white, rarely yellow, obcordate, apex deeply 2-fid;

stamens tetradynamous;

filaments: median pair flattened basally, unappendaged, [laterally 1-toothed], lateral pair with basal toothlike appendage;

anthers oblong, (apex obtuse);

nectar glands (4), lateral, 1 on each side of lateral stamen.

sepals 2–2.5 mm;

petals narrowly obcordate, (4–)5–6.5(–8) mm (lobes oblong, (1–)1.5–3 × 0.5–1.5 mm);

filaments white, median pair 2–3.3 mm, lateral pair 0.3–1 mm;

anthers 0.5–1 mm.

Fruiting pedicels

erect or divaricate, slender.

appressed to rachis, (4–)5–9(–12) mm.

Fruits

sessile, oblong, or elliptic [ovate, obovate, or orbicular], smooth, slightly inflated [or not inflated], latiseptate;

valves each not veined or with obscure midvein, stellate-hairy [glabrous];

replum rounded;

septum complete, (membranous);

ovules 4–16 per ovary;

stigma capitate, obscurely 2-lobed.

(4–)5–8.5(–10) × (2–)2.5–4 mm;

valves obtuse at both ends, trichomes sometimes with unequal rays;

style 1–4 mm, sparsely pubescent basally.

Seeds

biseriate, flattened [plump], margined [winged or not], lenticular or ovoid-lenticular [suborbicular];

seed coat (minutely reticulate), not mucilaginous when wetted;

cotyledons accumbent.

slightly flattened, narrowly margined, 1–2.3 mm diam. 2n = 16.

x

= 8.

Berteroa

Berteroa incana

Phenology Flowering May–Sep.
Habitat Flood plains, meadows, waste places, railroad embankments, woodlands, grasslands, roadsides, fields, stream banks, pastures, hillsides, forest floor
Elevation 0-2800 m (0-9200 ft)
Distribution
from USDA
Europe; Asia [Introduced in North America]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
AZ; CA; CO; CT; DC; IA; ID; IL; IN; KS; MA; ME; MI; MN; MO; MT; ND; NE; NH; NJ; NV; NY; OH; OR; PA; RI; SD; UT; VA; VT; WA; WI; WV; WY; BC; MB; NB; ON; QC; SK; Europe; Asia [Introduced in North America]
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Species 5 (1 in the flora).

Berteroa mutabilis (Ventenat) de Candolle, native to northeastern Italy, the Balkan Peninsula, and northern Turkey, is known in North America only from a handful of collections almost all made more than a century ago as garden escapes in Kansas and Massachusetts. Although it was included by R. C. Rollins (1993), who indicated that it had not been collected for 60 years, the species apparently did not become naturalized in North America and, therefore, is not included here. From B. incana, B. mutabilis is easily distinguished by having winged instead of margined seeds, and flat and glabrous versus inflated and pubescent fruits. As indicated by I. A. Al-Shehbaz (1987), the record of B. obliqua (Smith) de Candolle from the Catskill region, New York, was based on misidentified plants of B. incana.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Source FNA vol. 7, p. 252. Author: Ihsan A. Al-Shehbaz. FNA vol. 7, p. 253.
Parent taxa Brassicaceae > tribe Alysseae Brassicaceae > tribe Alysseae > Berteroa
Subordinate taxa
B. incana
Synonyms Alyssum incanum
Name authority de Candolle: Mém. Mus. Hist. Nat. 7: 232: 290. (1821) (Linnaeus) de Candolle: Syst. Nat. 2: 291. (1821)
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