The green links below add additional plants to the comparison table. Blue links lead to other Web sites.
enable glossary links
Photo is of parent taxon
Habit Annuals; trichomes simple and branched. Annuals or, rarely, biennials or perennials; not scapose; pubescent or glabrous, trichomes short-stalked, forked or subdendritic, often mixed with coarse, simple ones.
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

blade base auriculate.

Racemes

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

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.

Fruiting pedicels

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

Fruits

inflated (often subglobose);

valves rounded (not keeled).

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.

Seeds

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

cotyledons accumbent.

x

= 7, 8, 9.

2n

= 14.

Paysonia lasiocarpa subsp. lasiocarpa

Paysonia

Phenology Flowering Jan–Apr.
Habitat Inland areas on sandy, gravelly, and silty clay soils, roadsides, brushland, open hills
Elevation 0-200 m (0-700 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
TX; Mexico (Coahuila, Nuevo León, Tamaulipas)
[BONAP county map]
sc United States; se United States; n Mexico
[BONAP county map]
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.)

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. 614. FNA vol. 7, p. 611. Author: Steve L. O’Kane Jr..
Parent taxa Brassicaceae > tribe Physarieae > Paysonia > Paysonia lasiocarpa Brassicaceae > tribe Physarieae
Sibling taxa
P. lasiocarpa subsp. berlandieri
Subordinate taxa
P. auriculata, P. densipila, P. grandiflora, P. lasiocarpa, P. lescurii, P. lyrata, P. perforata, P. stonensis
Name authority unknown O’Kane & Al-Shehbaz: Novon 12: 380. (2002)
Web links