Physaria alpina |
Physaria saximontana |
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Avery Peak or alpine twinpod, Avery Peak twinpod |
Fremont County twinpod, Rocky Mountain or Fremont County twinpod |
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Habit | Perennials; (with a long taproot), caudex usually buried, simple, (enlarged, covered with marcescent leaf bases, crown rosulate and horizontal to somewhat ascending, forming a dense crown at apex of caudex); (silvery) pubescent throughout, trichomes (sessile or stipitate), 5–8-rayed, rays furcate or bifurcate, (rounded to umbonate, strongly tuberculate, less so or smooth over center). | Perennials; caudex usually simple; (silvery) pubescent throughout, trichome rays furcate. | ||||
Stems | few from base, decumbent, (arising laterally proximal to current season’s leaves), 0.3–0.8 dm. |
several from base, prostrate to decumbent, 0.3–1 dm. |
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Basal leaves | (petiole slender); blade broadly obovate, or deltate to ovate or narrower, 1.5–3.5 cm, (base abruptly to gradually narrowed to petiole), margins entire or obscurely few-toothed, (apex usually obtuse, nearly acute in narrower leaves). |
(rosulate; petiole winged); blade orbicular to broadly obovate, 1.5–3 cm, margins entire or with broad, obscure toothlike angles each side at apex, (apex obtuse, surfaces densely pubescent, trichomes appressed). |
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Cauline leaves | (2–5 per stem); blade oblanceolate to spatulate, similar to basal, margins entire, (apex acute). |
blade broadly spatulate to linear-oblanceolate, 1–1.5 cm, margins entire. |
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Racemes | loose, (3–6-flowered). |
condensed, (subumbellate to slightly more elongated, few-flowered). |
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Flowers | sepals narrowly oblong to linear, 7–9 mm; petals (erect), spatulate, 10–12(–15) mm. |
sepals (yellowish, often with some purple), narrowly lanceolate, 5–6 mm; petals spatulate, 7.3–9.2 mm, (not clawed). |
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Fruiting pedicels | (widely spreading to ascending, slightly curved or straight), 7–11 mm. |
(divaricate-ascending, straight to slightly curved), 6–10 mm. |
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Fruits | (usually purplish in age), didymous, irregular and somewhat angular, not highly inflated, 4–11 × 10–13 mm, (coriaceous, papery, shallowly grooved distally and on sides, tapered and narrowed toward replum, base obtuse to truncate, apex with broad sinus to nearly truncate); valves (retaining seeds after dehiscence), densely pubescent, not silvery; replum elliptic to obovate, as wide as or wider than fruit, base rounded, margins sparsely pubescent or glabrous, apex rounded (with funicles); ovules 4 per ovary; style 5–7 mm, (glabrous). |
didymous, irregular, suborbicular, deeply bilobed, inflated in age, 10–12 × 12–15 mm, (papery, basal sinus absent or obsolete, apical sinus deep); valves (retaining seeds after dehiscence), densely pubescent, trichomes spreading, (ovaries and immature fruit downy); replum narrowly ovate to broadly oblong, not narrowed at middle, as wide as or wider than fruit, apex acute to obtuse; ovules 4 per ovary; style 3–7 mm. |
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Seeds | flattened. |
flattened. |
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Physaria alpina |
Physaria saximontana |
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Phenology | Flowering Jun–Jul. | |||||
Habitat | Whitish or red substrates from limestone or dolomite, ridge crests, rocky alpine tundra and open areas | |||||
Elevation | 3500-4000 m (11500-13100 ft) | |||||
Distribution |
CO
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MT; WY |
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Discussion | Of conservation concern. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Subspecies 2 (2 in the flora). Physaria saximontana (especially subsp. dentata) is morphologically similar to 22. P. didymocarpa. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 7, p. 624. | FNA vol. 7, p. 661. | ||||
Parent taxa | Brassicaceae > tribe Physarieae > Physaria | Brassicaceae > tribe Physarieae > Physaria | ||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||
Name authority | Rollins: Brittonia 33: 339. (1981) | Rollins: Contr. Gray Herb. 214: 13. (1984) | ||||
Web links |