Physaria bellii |
Physaria pachyphylla |
|
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Bell's or Front Range twinpod, Bell's twinpod, Front Range twinpod |
thick-leaf bladderpod |
|
Habit | Perennials; caudex simple, (relatively large); densely (silvery) pubescent, trichomes (sessile, appressed), rays furcate, fused at base. | Perennials; caudex usually simple, rarely branched, (loosely mounded, rosette-like growth); densely (silvery or gray) pubescent, trichomes (sessile), 5-rayed, rays bifurcate, slightly fused near base of main rays, (tuberculate throughout, less over umbo). |
Stems | simple from base, decumbent to nearly prostrate, 0.5–1.3 dm. |
several from base, decumbent to prostrate, (well-exserted beyond basal leaves), 0.2–0.5 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 differentiated from blade); blade (slightly cupped, leathery, nearly 1 mm thick), oblanceolate to orbicular, 1.2–2 cm, margins entire, (apex acute). |
Cauline leaves | blade oblanceolate to broadly obovate, 1–2.5 cm, margins entire. |
blade spatulate, similar to basal. |
Racemes | dense. |
dense, (subumbellate). |
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 (pale yellow), elliptic to oblong, 3.5–4.0 mm, (median pair somewhat thickened apically, cucullate); petals lingulate, 5–6 mm. |
Fruiting pedicels | (divaricate-ascending to widely spreading, slightly sigmoid to curved), 7–12 mm. |
(ascending, curved), 5–7 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 ellipsoid, slightly inflated (with slight apical constriction), 3–6 mm; valves pubescent, trichomes closely appressed; ovules 8 per ovary; style 1–3 mm (shorter than mature fruit). |
Seeds | compressed. |
plump, (oblong). |
2n | = 8. |
|
Physaria bellii |
Physaria pachyphylla |
|
Phenology | Flowering Mar–Jun(-Jul). | Flowering Jun–Jul. |
Habitat | Dark shale, road cuts, ridge crests, washes | Barren areas of mixed white, pink, or reddish limestone and diatomaceous earth |
Elevation | 1500-1800 m (4900-5900 ft) | 1300-1600 m (4300-5200 ft) |
Distribution |
CO
|
MT |
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. Physaria pachyphylla is known from the Pryor Mountain Desert near the Wyoming state line. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 7, p. 628. | FNA vol. 7, p. 656. |
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) | O’Kane & Grady: Novon 17: 187, fig. 4. (2007) |
Web links |