Flora of North America species comparison

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Neslia

ballmustard, neslia
Habit Annuals; not scapose; mostly pubescent, trichomes short-stalked, forked or substellate, mixed (on stem) with simple ones.
Stems

erect, unbranched basally, branched distally.
Leaves

basal and cauline;

petiolate or sessile;

basal not rosulate, shortly petiolate, blade margins entire, dentate, or denticulate;

cauline blade (base sagittate or strongly auriculate), margins usually entire, rarely denticulate.
Racemes

(corymbose, several-flowered, forming panicles), considerably elongated in fruit.
Flowers

sepals erect, oblong-ovate (pubescent);

petals yellow, spatulate, (longer than sepals), claw not differentiated from blade, (apex obtuse);

stamens slightly tetradynamous;

filaments not dilated basally;

anthers ovate, (apex obtuse);

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

divaricate-ascending, slender.
Fruits

silicles, nutletlike, indehiscent, subsessile, woody, compressed globose or sublenticular (readily detached from pedicel at maturity, apex truncate [umbonate]);

valves (1-seeded), prominently reticulate, glabrous;

replum rounded (obscured by valve margin);

septum complete;

ovules 2–4 per ovary; (style distinct, cylindrical, readily caducous at fruit maturity, leaving umbo or apicula);

stigma capitate.
Seeds

uniseriate, plump, not winged, ovoid;

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

cotyledons incumbent.
x

= 7.

Neslia
Distribution
from USDA
Europe; Asia; n Africa [Introduced in North America; introduced also in South America (Argentina), Australia]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Species 1.

Some authors recognize two species in Neslia, while others recognize only N. paniculata with two subspecies somewhat separated geographically, though intermediates are common in areas of overlap (P. W. Ball 1961). The sole difference between them is whether the fruit apex is truncate (subsp. paniculata) or apiculate [subsp. thracica (Velenovský) Bornmüller or N. apiculata Fischer, C. A. Meyer & Avé-Lallemant].

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 7, p. 455. Author: Ihsan A. Al-Shehbaz.
Parent taxa Brassicaceae > tribe Camelineae
Subordinate taxa
N. paniculata
Name authority Desvaux: J. Bot. Agric. 3: 162. (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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