Flora of North America species comparison

The green links below add additional plants to the comparison table. Blue links lead to other Web sites.
enable glossary links

Paysonia

Brassicaceae tribe Physarieae
Habit Annuals or, rarely, biennials or perennials; not scapose; pubescent or glabrous, trichomes short-stalked, forked or subdendritic, often mixed with coarse, simple ones. Annuals, biennials, perennials, or subshrubs; eglandular.
Stems

erect, ascending, decumbent, or procumbent, unbranched or branched.

Leaves

basal and cauline;

petiolate or sessile;

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

cauline sessile, blade (base usually auriculate or sagittate, sometimes amplexicaul), margins dentate to lobed.

Cauline leaves

petiolate, sessile, or subsessile;

blade base usually not auriculate (except Paysonia), margins entire, dentate, or sinuate.
Trichomes

usually short-stalked, subsessile, or sessile, sometimes long-stalked, stellate, scalelike, subdendritic, or forked, sometimes mixed with simple ones.
Racemes

(several-flowered), often strongly elongated in fruit, (rachis straight).

ebracteate, often elongated in fruit.
Flowers

sepals (deciduous), suberect, ascending, or spreading, oblong, (equal), lateral pair not saccate basally, (margins membranous);

petals yellow or white, broadly obovate, claw slightly differentiated from blade, (apex rounded, truncate, retuse, or emarginate);

stamens (erect), tetradynamous;

filaments dilated or not basally;

anthers oblong or sagittate, (not apiculate);

nectar glands confluent, subtending bases of median stamens, surrounding lateral stamens.

actinomorphic;

sepals erect, spreading, ascending, or reflexed, lateral pair seldom saccate basally;

petals white, yellow, lavender, purple, violet, orange, or brown [pink], claw present, often distinct;

filaments unappendaged, not winged;

pollen (3 or) 4–11-colpate.
Fruiting pedicels

ascending to divaricate or recurved, (straight or slightly curved), slender.

Fruits

silicles, subsessile or sessile, globose, subglobose, subpyriform, suborbicular, orbicular, elliptic, cordate, or obovoid, terete, flattened, latiseptate, or angustiseptate;

valves (papery or leathery), not veined, glabrous or pubescent, (trichomes branched and/or simple);

replum not flattened;

septum complete, perforated, or reduced to a rim, (membranous);

ovules 4–40 per ovary;

style distinct, (persistent, slender);

stigma capitate, entire.

silicles or siliques, dehiscent, unsegmented, terete, latiseptate, or angustiseptate;

ovules 2–100 per ovary;

style usually distinct;

stigma entire or strongly 2-lobed.
Seeds

sub-biseriate, flattened, margined, orbicular, suborbicular, or oval;

cotyledons accumbent.

biseriate, uniseriate, or aseriate;

cotyledons accumbent or incumbent.
x

= 7, 8, 9.

Paysonia

Brassicaceae tribe Physarieae
Distribution
sc United States; se United States; n Mexico
[BONAP county map]
North America; Mexico; South America; Asia (ne Russia)
Discussion

Species 8 (8 in the flora).

Paysonia was segregated from Lesquerella (now Physaria) based on its different base chromosome number, presence of auriculate stem leaves, typically annual duration, trichomes that are neither stellate nor tuberculate, and phylogenetic analysis of DNA sequences. Some species of the genus have very limited distributions and are of conservation concern. Five (P. densipila, P. lescurii, P. lyrata, P. perforata, and P. stonensis) are known to be interfertile under experimental conditions, and some combinations form fertile hybrids in the field (R. C. Rollins 1988).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Genera 7, species ca. 130 (7 genera, 105 species in the flora).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Key
1. Fruits orbicular, elliptic, or cordate
→ 2
1. Fruits globose, subglobose, subpyriform, or obovoid
→ 3
2. Fruits angustiseptate; fruiting pedicels recurved; cauline leaf blades: base cuneate to auriculate, not amplexicaul; filaments not dilated basally.
P. lasiocarpa
2. Fruits latiseptate; fruiting pedicels divaricate or nearly straight; cauline leaf blades: base auriculate to sagittate, sometimes amplexicaul; filaments dilated basally.
P. lescurii
3. Petals white or pale lavender; septums perforate or nearly absent
→ 4
3. Petals yellow; septums complete
→ 5
4. Fruits subpyriform, valves sparsely hirsute or glabrate; styles glabrous.
P. perforata
4. Fruits subglobose, valves densely hirsute; styles hirsute, at least proximally.
P. stonensis
5. Fruit valves pubescent; styles glabrous or pubescent proximally.
P. densipila
5. Fruit valves and styles glabrous
→ 6
6. Fruits 3-4 mm; ovules 4-8 per ovary; septums opaque.
P. lyrata
6. Fruits 4-6(-8) mm; ovules (8-)12-28(-40) per ovary; septums translucent
→ 7
7. Stems hirsute proximally, trichomes simple; petals 4-5 mm wide.
P. auriculata
7. Stems pubescent proximally, trichomes branched; petals 6-9 mm wide.
P. grandiflora
Source FNA vol. 7, p. 611. Author: Steve L. O’Kane Jr.. FNA vol. 7, p. 604.
Parent taxa Brassicaceae > tribe Physarieae Brassicaceae
Subordinate taxa
P. auriculata, P. densipila, P. grandiflora, P. lasiocarpa, P. lescurii, P. lyrata, P. perforata, P. stonensis
Name authority O’Kane & Al-Shehbaz: Novon 12: 380. (2002) B. L. Robinson: in A. Gray et al., Syn. Fl. N. Amer. 1(1,1): 100. (1895)
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).



Type/paste one or more Latin names into the boxes above; matching taxa will show up below the box as you type. You can use the up/down arrow keys to move through the list.

(If the plant you're looking for doesn't show up in the auto-complete list, that means it either isn't described in Flora of North America yet, or it's listed under a synonym. And please note that Flora of North America is still missing several plant families, including Apiaceae, Boraginaceae, and Polemoniaceae.)

Choose a data source: Flora of North America

The species comparison tool is brought to you by:
Northwest Wildflowers