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Great Plains bladderpod

Habit Perennials or, rarely, annuals; caudex simple or branched; ± densely pubescent, trichomes (sessile or short-stalked), few-rayed, rays (usually spreading), distinct or slightly fused at base, furcate or bifurcate, (tuberculate).
Stems

simple or few from base, prostrate or straggling to erect, (sometimes purplish, usually unbranched), (0.5–)1–2(–3) dm.

Basal leaves

blade oblanceolate, 1.5–5(–7) cm, margins entire or shallowly dentate, (flat).

Cauline leaves

blade elliptic to linear, (0.5–)1–2.5(–3) cm, margins usually entire.

Racemes

(secund), dense, (elongated in fruit).

Flowers

sepals elliptic or oblong, 4–6(–7) mm, (lateral pair subsaccate, median pair thickened apically, cucullate);

petals (often red or lavender when dried), obovate, 6–8.5(–9.5) mm, (narrowing to broad claw).

Fruiting pedicels

(usually sharply recurved, sometimes divaricate-spreading or nearly horizontal), 5–15(–20) mm, (stout).

Fruits

subglobose, obovoid, or broadly ellipsoid, slightly inflated, (3.5–)4–5.5(–6.5) mm;

valves densely pubescent outside, trichomes spreading or closely appressed, rarely sparsely pubescent inside;

ovules (4–)8(–10) per ovary;

style (slender), 3–5.5(–6.5) mm.

Seeds

slightly flattened.

Physaria arenosa

Distribution
from FNA
CO; MT; ND; NE; SD; WY; AB; MB; SK
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Subspecies 2 (2 in the flora).

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

Key
1. Perennials or, rarely, annuals, short-lived; fruit valves: trichomes spreading.
subsp. arenosa
1. Perennials, long-lived; fruit valves: trichomes closely appressed.
subsp. argillosa
Source FNA vol. 7, p. 626.
Parent taxa Brassicaceae > tribe Physarieae > Physaria
Sibling taxa
P. acutifolia, P. alpestris, P. alpina, P. angustifolia, P. arctica, P. argyraea, P. arizonica, P. aurea, P. bellii, P. brassicoides, P. calcicola, P. calderi, P. carinata, P. chambersii, P. cinerea, P. condensata, P. congesta, P. cordiformis, P. curvipes, P. densiflora, P. didymocarpa, P. dornii, P. douglasii, P. eburniflora, P. engelmannii, P. eriocarpa, P. fendleri, P. filiformis, P. floribunda, P. fremontii, P. garrettii, P. geyeri, P. globosa, P. gooddingii, P. gordonii, P. gracilis, P. grahamii, P. hemiphysaria, P. hitchcockii, P. humilis, P. integrifolia, P. intermedia, P. kingii, P. klausii, P. lata, P. lepidota, P. lesicii, P. lindheimeri, P. ludoviciana, P. macrocarpa, P. mcvaughiana, P. montana, P. multiceps, P. navajoensis, P. nelsonii, P. newberryi, P. obcordata, P. obdeltata, P. occidentalis, P. oregona, P. ovalifolia, P. pachyphylla, P. pallida, P. parviflora, P. parvula, P. pendula, P. pinetorum, P. prostrata, P. pruinosa, P. pulvinata, P. purpurea, P. pycnantha, P. rectipes, P. recurvata, P. reediana, P. rollinsii, P. saximontana, P. scrotiformis, P. sessilis, P. spatulata, P. subumbellata, P. tenella, P. thamnophila, P. tumulosa, P. valida, P. vicina, P. vitulifera
Subordinate taxa
P. arenosa subsp. arenosa, P. arenosa subsp. argillosa
Synonyms Vesicaria arenosa, Lesquerella arenosa, Lesquerella argentea var. arenosa, Lesquerella ludoviciana var. arenosa
Name authority (Richardson) O’Kane & Al-Shehbaz: Novon 12: 321. (2002)
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