The green links below add additional plants to the comparison table. Blue links lead to other Web sites.
enable glossary links

Bell's or Front Range twinpod, Bell's twinpod, Front Range twinpod

Lindheimer's bladderpod

Habit Perennials; caudex simple, (relatively large); densely (silvery) pubescent, trichomes (sessile, appressed), rays furcate, fused at base. Annuals or biennials; with a fine taproot; densely pubescent, trichomes (sessile or short-stalked), 4–7-rayed, rays usually furcate at base, sometimes bifurcate, (rough-tuberculate throughout).
Stems

simple from base, decumbent to nearly prostrate, 0.5–1.3 dm.

several from base, erect or outer decumbent, (often several-branched, branches slender and flexuous), to 8 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).

blade pinnatisect to repand, 3–9(–14) cm, margins entire.

Cauline leaves

blade oblanceolate to broadly obovate, 1–2.5 cm, margins entire.

(sometimes secund, proximal usually petiolate, distal sessile);

blade elliptic, 1–6 cm, (distal with cuneate base), margins entire or deeply dentate.

Racemes

dense.

dense.

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 elliptic to oblong, 3–5.5 mm, (median pair slightly thickened apically, cucullate);

petals (sometimes drying slightly purplish), suborbicular or broadly ovate, 4.5–7(–9) mm, (narrowing gradually to short claw).

Fruiting pedicels

(divaricate-ascending to widely spreading, slightly sigmoid to curved), 7–12 mm.

(horizontal or recurved and ascending at tip, sometimes loosely sigmoid), (5–)10–20 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.

globose or broadly ellipsoid, not or slightly inflated, (4–)5–8 mm, (smooth);

valves (not retaining seeds after dehiscence), glabrous;

replum as wide as or wider than fruit;

ovules (8–)12–16(–20) per ovary;

style (1.5–)2–3(–4) mm.

Seeds

compressed.

flattened.

2n

= 8.

= 12.

Physaria bellii

Physaria lindheimeri

Phenology Flowering Mar–Jun(-Jul). Flowering Dec–Apr.
Habitat Dark shale, road cuts, ridge crests, washes Heavy, black, claylike soils, or lighter, sandy soils, thickets, field-margins, roadsides, coastal prairies
Elevation 1500-1800 m (4900-5900 ft) 20-800 m (100-2600 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
CO
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
TX; Mexico (Tamaulipas)
[BONAP county map]
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.)

Source FNA vol. 7, p. 628. FNA vol. 7, p. 649.
Parent taxa Brassicaceae > tribe Physarieae > Physaria Brassicaceae > tribe Physarieae > Physaria
Sibling taxa
P. acutifolia, P. alpestris, P. alpina, P. angustifolia, P. arctica, P. arenosa, P. argyraea, P. arizonica, P. aurea, 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
P. acutifolia, P. alpestris, P. alpina, P. angustifolia, P. arctica, P. arenosa, 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. 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
Synonyms Vesicaria lindheimeri, Alyssum lindheimeri, Lesquerella gracilis var. pilosa, Lesquerella lindheimeri
Name authority G. A. Mulligan: Canad. J. Bot. 44: 1662, fig. 1, plate 1, fig. 3. (1966) (A. Gray) O’Kane & Al-Shehbaz: Novon 12: 325. (2002)
Web links