Physaria bellii |
Physaria condensata |
|
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Bell's or Front Range twinpod, Bell's twinpod, Front Range twinpod |
tuft twinpod |
|
Habit | Perennials; caudex simple, (relatively large); densely (silvery) pubescent, trichomes (sessile, appressed), rays furcate, fused at base. | Perennials; caudex usually simple, rarely branched, (enlarged with persistent leaf bases, cespitose); (silvery) pubescent throughout, trichomes several-rayed, rays typically furcate, (fused at base, arms slender, tuberculate throughout). |
Stems | simple from base, decumbent to nearly prostrate, 0.5–1.3 dm. |
several from base, decumbent to ascending, (arising laterally beneath a dense rosette), less than 0.1 dm. |
Basal leaves | (strongly rosulate; shortly petiolate); blade broadly obovate, 1.5–7.5 (width 7.5–26 mm, base gradually tapering to petiole), margins shallowly dentate, (apex obtuse). |
(petiole slender); blade (horizontal on the ground), obovate, 0.5–1.5 cm (width 4–8 mm, base tapering abruptly to petiole), margins entire, (apex usually acute, surfaces silvery from a dense incrustation of appressed, stellate trichomes). |
Cauline leaves | blade oblanceolate to broadly obovate, 1–2.5 cm, margins entire. |
blade oblanceolate, 0.5–1 cm (width 2–3 mm), margins entire, (surfaces densely stellate pubescent). |
Racemes | dense. |
congested, (subumbellate, often almost sessile, barely exceeding basal leaves). |
Flowers | sepals (pale yellow or yellow-green), narrowly lanceolate to narrowly deltate, 4–8 mm; petals yellow, broadly spatulate to obovate, 9–13 mm, (not clawed). |
sepals (yellowish green), narrowly lanceolate, 4–5 mm; petals (erect), oblanceolate, 6–7 mm, (claw weakly differentiated from blade). |
Fruiting pedicels | (divaricate-ascending to widely spreading, slightly sigmoid to curved), 7–12 mm. |
(divaricate, straight), 5–10 mm. |
Fruits | didymous, slightly flattened (contrary to replum) to uncompressed, 4–9 × 2–8 mm, (strongly coriaceous, apical and basal sinuses narrow, deep); valves (retaining seeds after dehiscence), pubescent, trichomes appressed; replum narrowly oblanceolate to narrowly linear-oblong, as wide as or wider than fruit, apex obtuse; ovules 4 per ovary; style more than 3 mm. |
didymous, ovate, inflated, 4.8–6 × 6–10 mm, (papery, basal and apical sinuses deep); valves (retaining seeds after dehiscence), pubescent, trichomes loosely spreading; replum obovate, 3–4 mm, as wide as or wider than fruit; ovules 8 per ovary (2–4 abortive); style 4–6 mm. |
Seeds | compressed. |
flattened. |
2n | = 8. |
|
Physaria bellii |
Physaria condensata |
|
Phenology | Flowering Mar–Jun(-Jul). | Flowering May–Jun. |
Habitat | Dark shale, road cuts, ridge crests, washes | Calcareous knolls and ridges, clay banks, limey slopes, shaley hills, clay patches |
Elevation | 1500-1800 m (4900-5900 ft) | 1800-2400 m (5900-7900 ft) |
Distribution |
CO
|
WY |
Discussion | Of conservation concern. Physaria bellii is often found in shale and limestone soils of the Fountain/Ingleside, Lykins, Niobrara, and Pierre formations. It is in the Center for Plant Conservation’s National Collection of Endangered Plants. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Of conservation concern. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 7, p. 628. | FNA vol. 7, p. 631. |
Parent taxa | Brassicaceae > tribe Physarieae > Physaria | Brassicaceae > tribe Physarieae > Physaria |
Sibling taxa | ||
Name authority | G. A. Mulligan: Canad. J. Bot. 44: 1662, fig. 1, plate 1, fig. 3. (1966) | Rollins: Rhodora 41: 407, plate 556, figs. 1, 9, 10. (1939) |
Web links |