Flora of North America species comparison

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Leavenworthia

gladecress
Habit Annuals (winter); scapose; glabrous.
Stems

(sometimes absent), decumbent, branched basally and distally.
Leaves

basal and, sometimes, cauline;

petiolate;

basal rosulate, blade margins entire or lyrate-pinnatifid;

cauline blade (base not auriculate), margins entire or lyrate-pinnatifid, (similar to basal).
Inflorescences

usually solitary flowers (on long peduncles from basal rosettes), sometimes racemes present in robust plants (corymbose, several-flowered), elongated in fruit.
Flowers

sepals spreading or suberect, oblong or oblong-linear, lateral pair not saccate basally;

petals white, lavender, orange, or yellow, obovate to spatulate, obcordate, or oblanceolate, (much longer than sepals), claw differentiated from blade, (much shorter than blade, apex shallowly to deeply emarginate or, rarely, truncate or obtuse);

stamens strongly tetradynamous, (erect);

filaments not dilated basally;

anthers oblong, (apex obtuse);

nectar glands: lateral annular, median glands present (distinct).
Fruits

siliques or silicles, sessile or shortly stipitate, linear to oblong or subglobose, torulose or smooth (or submoniliform), latiseptate, subterete, or terete;

valves each obscurely veined;

replum rounded;

septum complete;

ovules 5–25 per ovary;

style distinct, (slender or stout);

stigma capitate, (sometimes slightly 2-lobed).
Seeds

uniseriate, flattened, broadly winged or margined, suborbicular;

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

cotyledons obscurely accumbent, (radicle much shorter than cotyledon, straight or slightly bent).
x

= 11, 12, 15.

Leavenworthia
Distribution
from USDA
se United States; s United States
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Species 8 (8 in the flora).

Leavenworthia has been subjected to extensive studies covering the taxonomy, breeding systems, evolution, and ecology of its species (I. A. Al-Shehbaz 1988). Monophyly of the genus and its sister relationship to Selenia are fairly well-established and need no further elaboration here. Although all eight species are fairly well-defined, it is often difficult to determine them based on material without mature fruits. In our opinion, it is far more difficult, and indeed impractical, to determine the five additional varieties recognized by R. C. Rollins (1963, 1993), because they are based solely on minor differences in the petal color, style length, and petal size, all of which are characters that show considerable variation of a continuous nature. We prefer not to recognize any infraspecific taxa at this stage. The varieties tend to have some geographical basis and might eventually be recognized as such with additional phylogeographic study.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Key
1. Petals oblanceolate, 3.7-6.4 mm, apex obtuse or truncate; leaf blade lobe margins coarsely dentate, terminal lobes slightly larger than lateral lobes; ovules 18-26 per ovary.
L. uniflora
1. Petals obovate, broadly spatulate, to obcordate, (5-)6-14(-15) mm, apex emarginate; leaf blade lobe margins entire or shallowly dentate, terminal lobes considerably larger than lateral lobes; ovules 4-16(-18) per ovary
→ 2
2. Fruits markedly torulose or submoniliform; seed wings obsolete or to 0.1 mm wide.
L. torulosa
2. Fruits smooth, or, rarely, obscurely torulose; seed wings 0.2-0.5 mm wide
→ 3
3. Styles 0.7-3 mm; petals 5-9 mm, apex shallowly emarginate, apical notch 0.1-0.4 (-0.6) mm deep
→ 4
3. Styles (1.5-)3-7 mm; petals 9-16 mm, apex deeply emarginate, apical notch 0.5-1.3 mm deep
→ 6
4. Fruits not margined; styles 0.7-1.7(-2.2) mm; Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee.
L. exigua
4. Fruits margined; styles (1.5-)2-3 mm; Oklahoma, Texas
→ 5
5. Leaf blade terminal lobes shorter than wide, margins slightly lobed or shallowly dentate; petals bright yellow, narrowly obovate.
L. texana
5. Leaf blade terminal lobes equal to or slightly longer than wide, margins usually shallowly dentate; petals pale yellow, obcordate to broadly obovate.
L. aurea
6. Fruits latiseptate, valves thin; styles 1.5-4.5 mm; petals white to lavender.
L. alabamica
6. Fruits subterete, valves thick; styles 2.2-7 mm; petals usually yellow, sometimes lavender or white
→ 7
7. Fruits (0.6-)0.8-1.2(-1.4) cm × (3.5-)4-5(-6) mm; ovules 4-6(-8) per ovary.
L. crassa
7. Fruits (1-)1.5-3.4 cm × (2.5-)3-4(-4.5) mm; ovules (6-)8-12 per ovary.
L. stylosa
Source FNA vol. 7, p. 485. Authors: Ihsan A. Al-Shehbaz, James B. Beck.
Parent taxa Brassicaceae > tribe Cardamineae
Subordinate taxa
L. alabamica, L. aurea, L. crassa, L. exigua, L. stylosa, L. texana, L. torulosa, L. uniflora
Name authority Torrey: Ann. Lyceum Nat. Hist. New York 4: 87. (1837)
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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