Noccaea fendleri |
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alpine pennycress, Fendler's pennycress, penny-cress, wild candytuft |
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Habit | Perennials; (cespitose or not). | ||||||||||||||||
Stems | simple or several from caudex, erect or ascending, unbranched or branched distally, (0.1–)0.4–3.2(–4.5) dm. |
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Basal leaves | petiole 0.4–7.3 cm; blade linear, oblong, oblanceolate, ovate, obovate, or spatulate, 0.4–3 cm × 2–20 mm, base cuneate to attenuate, margins entire, denticulate, or dentate, apex obtuse to acute. |
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Cauline leaves | 2–21; blade ovate or suboblong, 0.4–2.8 × 0.1–1.7 mm, base auriculate to subamplexicaul, margins entire or dentate, apex obtuse to subacute. |
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Racemes | 0.5–25 cm, (congested or considerably elongated). |
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Flowers | sepals 1.6–5.3 × 0.5–1.5 mm, (margins membranous); petals white to pinkish purple, (3.4–)4.2–13 × 1–4.9 mm, often flaring between blade and claw, apex obtuse; filaments 2–7.5 mm; anthers 0.5–1 mm. |
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Fruiting pedicels | horizontal to ascending, straight, 2.5–15 mm. |
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Fruits | obovate, obcordate, obdeltate, or elliptic, 2.5–16 × 1.5–9 mm, usually winged, rarely not winged apically, base cuneate, apex obtuse, truncate, or emarginate; ovules 4–10 per ovary; style (0.4–)1.1–4.2 mm. |
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Seeds | brown, 1.1–2.1 mm, minutely reticulate. |
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Noccaea fendleri |
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Distribution |
AZ; CA; CO; ID; MT; NM; NV; OR; TX; UT; WA; WY; n Mexico
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Discussion | Subspecies 5 (5 in the flora). Some North American authors (e.g., P. K. Holmgren 1971; R. C. Rollins 1993) treated Noccaea fendleri as conspecific with the European Thlaspi montanum, whereas others (e.g., E. B. Payson 1926) recognized the North American taxa as endemic to the continent. Molecular studies (M. Koch and I. A. Al-Shehbaz 2004) supported Payson’s view of the independent status of the North American representatives. Although Payson and Rollins recognized more than one species here (e.g., T. californicum, T. idahoense, T. glaucum, T. fendleri), I agree with Holmgren in treating them as infraspecific taxa, but at the subspecific instead of varietal rank. The distinctions among them are not very sharp, and hybridization appears to have played some role in blurring their boundaries, as evidenced from Holmgren’s report of morphologically intermediate forms between subsp. glauca (as T. montanum var. montanum) and each of subspp. fendleri, idahoensis, and siskiyouensis. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 7, p. 601. | ||||||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Brassicaceae > tribe Noccaeeae > Noccaea | ||||||||||||||||
Sibling taxa | |||||||||||||||||
Subordinate taxa | |||||||||||||||||
Synonyms | Thlaspi fendleri, Thlaspi montanum var. fendleri | ||||||||||||||||
Name authority | (A. Gray) Holub: Preslia 70: 108. (1998) | ||||||||||||||||
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