Flora of North America species comparison

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Pennellia

mock thelypody
Habit Perennials; not scapose; pubescent or glabrous, trichomes simple, with stalked, forked or dendritic ones.
Stems

erect [ascending], often branched distally.
Leaves

basal and cauline;

petiolate or sessile;

basal (withered with age), rosulate, petiolate, blade margins entire, dentate to sinuate, or runcinate;

cauline subsessile or sessile [shortly petiolate], blade margins entire [dentate to sinuate].
Racemes

(several-flowered, sometimes secund, lax), considerably elongated in fruit.
Flowers

(usually actinomorphic, rarely zygomorphic, cup-shaped);

sepals erect, oblong to ovate, lateral pair slightly to strongly saccate basally, (usually pubescent, rarely glabrous);

petals white (lavender or purple apically), spatulate to oblanceolate, (± longer than sepals), claw undifferentiated from blade, (apex obtuse);

stamens slightly tetradynamous;

filaments dilated basally;

anthers ovate to oblong, (apex obtuse);

nectar glands confluent, subtending bases of stamens.
Fruiting pedicels

erect, descending, ascending, or divaricate-ascending, slender, (glabrous).
Fruits

siliques, sessile or shortly stipitate, linear, not torulose, straight or curved, terete or latiseptate;

valves each with prominent or obscure midvein, glabrous or pubescent;

replum rounded;

septum complete;

ovules 40–250 per ovary;

style distinct or obsolete;

stigma capitate.
Seeds

uniseriate or biseriate, plump or flattened, winged or not, oblong to ovate;

seed coat (reticulate-areolate), mucilaginous or not when wetted;

cotyledons accumbent or incumbent.
x

= 8.

Pennellia
Distribution
from USDA
sw United States; Mexico; Central America; South America
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Species 8 (3 in the flora).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Key
1. Fruits strongly latiseptate, 2-2.5 mm wide; seeds 2.4-2.8 mm, winged (broadly); septums opaque; ovules 40-50 per ovary; cotyledons accumbent.
P. tricornuta
1. Fruits terete or slightly latiseptate, 0.6-1.8 mm wide; seeds 0.7-1.3 mm, not winged; septums transparent; ovules 90-250 per ovary; cotyledons incumbent
→ 2
2. Racemes not secund; fruiting pedicels straight, erect or ascending; fruits (1.5-)2.2-5.8 cm, terete; ovules 90-140 per ovary; sepals 2.7-4 mm; petals 1.5-4(-5) mm.
P. micrantha
2. Racemes secund; fruiting pedicels arcuate, reflexed; fruits 5-10 cm, latiseptate; ovules 150-250 per ovary; sepals 4-9 mm; petals (4-)5-7(-12) mm.
P. longifolia
Source FNA vol. 7, p. 559. Authors: Sara Fuentes-Soriano, Ihsan A. Al-Shehbaz.
Parent taxa Brassicaceae > tribe Halimolobeae
Subordinate taxa
P. longifolia, P. micrantha, P. tricornuta
Synonyms Heterothrix, Lamprophragma
Name authority Nieuwland: Amer. Midl. Naturalist 5: 224. (1918)
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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