Physaria bellii |
Physaria hitchcockii |
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Bell's or Front Range twinpod, Bell's twinpod, Front Range twinpod |
Hitchcock's bladderpod |
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Habit | Perennials; caudex simple, (relatively large); densely (silvery) pubescent, trichomes (sessile, appressed), rays furcate, fused at base. | Perennials; (forming loose mats); caudex (buried), branched; densely pubescent, trichomes (short-stalked), 4–6-rayed, rays distinct, bifurcate, (rough-tuberculate). | ||||||||
Stems | simple from base, decumbent to nearly prostrate, 0.5–1.3 dm. |
few to several from base, prostrate to erect or spreading, 0.05–0.5(–1.2) dm. |
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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 and blade differentiated or not); blade spatulate to elliptic or linear or narrowly oblanceolate, 0.5–1.5(–2.5) cm, margins entire. |
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Cauline leaves | blade oblanceolate to broadly obovate, 1–2.5 cm, margins entire. |
similar to basal, smaller. |
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Racemes | dense. |
dense. |
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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 narrowly lanceolate to lanceolate, 2.8–6 mm; petals (pale to deep yellow), narrowly lanceolate to oblanceolate, 5–9 mm, (claw undifferentiated from blade). |
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Fruiting pedicels | (divaricate-ascending to widely spreading, slightly sigmoid to curved), 7–12 mm. |
(ascending, straight or slightly curved), 2–6 mm. |
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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. |
(sessile or substipitate), globose or subglobose to obovoid, not or slightly inflated, 3–6 mm, (firm, apex acute); valves (reddish in age, not retaining seeds after dehiscence), glabrous throughout; replum as wide as or wider than fruit; ovules 4–8 per ovary; style 1.7–6 mm. |
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Seeds | compressed. |
flattened. |
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2n | = 8. |
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Physaria bellii |
Physaria hitchcockii |
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Phenology | Flowering Mar–Jun(-Jul). | |||||||||
Habitat | Dark shale, road cuts, ridge crests, washes | |||||||||
Elevation | 1500-1800 m (4900-5900 ft) | |||||||||
Distribution |
CO
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NV; UT |
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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.) |
Subspecies 3 (3 in the flora). The taxonomic treatment of Physaria hitchcockii has varied widely over the years. Molecular study (pers. obs.) has shown no direct relationship to P. tumulosa; morphologically, though, P. navajoensis and P. tumulosa appear closely related. Infraspecific taxonomy is based on the presence of a discernable petiole and whether or not the caudex is elastically elongated. The subspecies recognized here are usually geographically coherent, except that collections from the Table Cliff Plateau are more similar to subsp. hitchcockii, disjunct in Nevada, than they are to the very nearly sympatric subsp. rubicundula. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 7, p. 628. | FNA vol. 7, p. 643. | ||||||||
Parent taxa | Brassicaceae > tribe Physarieae > Physaria | Brassicaceae > tribe Physarieae > Physaria | ||||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||
Synonyms | Lesquerella hitchcockii | |||||||||
Name authority | G. A. Mulligan: Canad. J. Bot. 44: 1662, fig. 1, plate 1, fig. 3. (1966) | (Munz) O’Kane & Al-Shehbaz: Novon 12: 324. (2002) | ||||||||
Web links |