Flora of North America species comparison

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Braya

northern-rockcress
Habit Perennials; (sometimes pulvinate, caudex simple or many-branched); scapose or not; usually pubescent or pilose, sometimes glabrous, trichomes short-stalked, forked, subdendritic, or submalpighiaceous, mixed with simple ones (rarely exclusively).
Stems

erect to decumbent or ascending, unbranched or branched.
Leaves

basal and, sometimes, cauline;

petiolate or sessile;

basal rosulate, petiolate, blade margins entire, sinuate, dentate, or, rarely, pinnately lobed;

cauline usually absent, rarely few present, (sub)sessile, blade margins usually entire, rarely dentate or pinnately lobed.
Racemes

(corymbose, sometimes bracteate basally or throughout), elongated or not in fruit.
Flowers

sepals [sometimes persistent], oblong [ovate], lateral pair not saccate basally (sometimes slightly so in B. humilis and B. linearis);

petals white, pink, or purple [rarely pale yellow], obovate, oblanceolate, or spatulate, (slightly to much longer than sepals), claw distinct or not, (shorter than sepal, apex obtuse or rounded);

stamens tetradynamous;

filaments dilated or not basally;

anthers ovate or oblong, (apex usually obtuse, sometimes apiculate);

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

erect, divaricate, or ascending, slender (much narrower than fruit).
Fruits

siliques or silicles, sessile, linear, oblong, cylindrical, oval-elliptic, ovoid, lanceoloid, lanceoloid-subulate, or globose, smooth or torulose, terete or slightly latiseptate;

valves each often with prominent midvein, glabrous or pubescent;

replum rounded;

septum complete, (membranous, translucent);

ovules (5–)14–44 per ovary;

stigma capitate, entire or slightly 2-lobed.
Seeds

plump, not winged, oblong or ovoid;

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

cotyledons incumbent.
x

= 7.

Braya
Distribution
from USDA
North America; n Europe; Asia
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Species 17 (7 in the flora).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Key
1. Plants not scapose; cauline leaves (1 or) 2-4; fruits linear; seeds usually uniseriate, rarely weakly biseriate
→ 2
1. Plants scapose; cauline leaves 0 or 1 (or with leaflike bract subtending proximalmost pedicel); fruits ovoid, globose, oval-elliptic, oblong, oblong-elliptic, oblong-lanceoloid, or lanceoloid-subulate, not linear; seeds usually biseriate (uniseriate in B. fernaldii and, sometimes, B. longii)
→ 3
2. Cauline leaves 3 or more; basal leaves (0.3-)0.5-2(-3.5) cm × 1-8(-10) mm; racemes elongated in fruit; fruits (0.9-)1.2-2.5(-3.2) cm
B. humilis
2. Cauline leaves 1-4; basal leaves 0.5-3 cm × 0.5-2(-3) mm; racemes not elongated in fruit; fruits (0.5-)0.9-1.2(-1.4) cm.
B. linearis
3. Fruits ovoid or globose
→ 4
3. Fruits oval-elliptic, oblong, oblong-elliptic, oblong-lanceoloid, or lanceoloid-subulate
→ 5
4. Petals 4.7-6.6 × 3-5.1 mm; styles 1.2-2(-2.5) mm; stems erect to ascending.
B. pilosa
4. Petals 2-3.7 × 1-1.5 mm; styles obsolete to 0.7(-1) mm; stems usually decumbent to prostrate, sometimes ascending.
B. thorild-wulffii
5. Fruits oval-elliptic, oblong-cylindrical, or lanceoloid; septum margins not expanded basally (not forming sacklike pouch around proximalmost seeds); seeds biseriate.
B. glabella
5. Fruits lanceoloid-subulate; septum margins broadly expanded basally (forming sacklike pouch around proximalmost seeds); seeds somewhat to nearly uniseriate
→ 6
6. Fruit valves pubescent; petals 2.4-3.8(-4) × (0.8-)1-1.3(-2) mm, (claws often not well- differentiated from blades).
B. fernaldii
6. Fruit valves glabrous or sparsely pubescent; petals (3-)3.3-4.8(-5) × (1.2-)1.4-2.5(-3) mm, (claws usually well-differentiated from blades).
B. longii
Source FNA vol. 7, p. 546. Author: James G. Harris.
Parent taxa Brassicaceae > tribe Euclidieae
Subordinate taxa
B. fernaldii, B. glabella, B. humilis, B. linearis, B. longii, B. pilosa, B. thorild-wulffii
Synonyms Platypetalum
Name authority Sternberg & Hoppe: Denkschr. Königl.-Baier. Bot. Ges. Regensburg 1(1): 65. (1815)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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