Physaria condensata |
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tuft twinpod |
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Habit | 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 | several from base, decumbent to ascending, (arising laterally beneath a dense rosette), less than 0.1 dm. |
Basal leaves | (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, 0.5–1 cm (width 2–3 mm), margins entire, (surfaces densely stellate pubescent). |
Racemes | congested, (subumbellate, often almost sessile, barely exceeding basal leaves). |
Flowers | sepals (yellowish green), narrowly lanceolate, 4–5 mm; petals (erect), oblanceolate, 6–7 mm, (claw weakly differentiated from blade). |
Fruiting pedicels | (divaricate, straight), 5–10 mm. |
Fruits | 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 | flattened. |
Physaria condensata |
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Phenology | Flowering May–Jun. |
Habitat | Calcareous knolls and ridges, clay banks, limey slopes, shaley hills, clay patches |
Elevation | 1800-2400 m (5900-7900 ft) |
Distribution |
WY |
Discussion | Of conservation concern. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 7, p. 631. |
Parent taxa | |
Sibling taxa | |
Name authority | Rollins: Rhodora 41: 407, plate 556, figs. 1, 9, 10. (1939) |
Web links |