Flora of North America species comparison

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Descurainia torulosa
Habit Perennials; (short-lived); eglandular; moderately to densely pubescent throughout, trichomes dendritic.
Stems

(several to numerous from base), decumbent, usually unbranched, rarely branched distally, 0.4–1.5 dm.
Basal leaves

petiole 0.3–1.4 cm;

blade pinnate, oblanceolate in outline, 0.9–3.5 cm, lateral lobes (3–5 pairs), oblanceolate to oblong, (2–5 × 0.5–1.5 mm), margins entire.
Cauline leaves

sessile or shortly petiolate;

blade smaller distally, distal lobes often narrower, surfaces moderately pubescent.
Racemes

considerably elongated in fruit.
Flowers

sepals ascending, yellowish, oblong, 0.9–1.2 mm, pubescent;

petals narrowly oblanceolate, 1.4–2 × 0.4–0.6 mm;

median filaments 1.6–2 mm;

anthers 0.2–0.3 mm.
Fruiting pedicels

erect to erect-ascending, straight, 1.5–3 mm.
Fruits

erect, (subappressed to rachis basally), narrowly linear, strongly torulose, 6–15 × 0.6–0.8 mm, (curved outward distally);

valves each with obscure midvein, (pubescent);

septum not veined;

ovules 10–18 per ovary;

style obsolete, 0.1–0.3 mm, sparsely pubescent.
Seeds

uniseriate, reddish brown, oblong, 1–1.3 × 0.5–0.6 mm.

Descurainia torulosa
Phenology Flowering Jun–Jul.
Habitat Rocky slopes at bases of cliffs
Elevation ca. 3100 m (ca. 10200 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
WY
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Of conservation concern.

Descurainia torulosa is known from Fremont, Park, Sweetwater, and Teton counties. It was studied by J. S. Bricker et al. (2000), who concluded that its status and relationship to D. incana remain unresolved as they were unable to find a set of morphological characters that consistently separated the two taxa. We believe that D. torulosa should be maintained, and that it is easily distinguished from D. incana by having fruits strongly torulose (versus weakly or not torulose), pubescent (versus glabrous), and distinctly curved (versus straight) distally, sparsely pubescent (versus glabrous) styles, fruit valves each with obscure (versus distinct) midvein, and stems decumbent, unbranched, and often several (versus stems erect, branched, and simple) from the base.

Descurainia torulosa is in the Center for Plant Conservation’s National Database of Endangered Plants.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 7, p. 529.
Parent taxa Brassicaceae > tribe Descurainieae > Descurainia
Sibling taxa
D. adenophora, D. brevisiliqua, D. californica, D. incana, D. incisa, D. kenheilii, D. longepedicellata, D. nelsonii, D. obtusa, D. paradisa, D. pinnata, D. sophia, D. sophioides
Name authority Rollins: J. Arnold Arbor. 64: 499. (1983)
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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