Physaria gordonii |
Physaria alpina |
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Gordon's bladderpod |
Avery Peak or alpine twinpod, Avery Peak twinpod |
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Habit | Annuals, biennials, or perennials; (short-lived); with a fine taproot; usually densely pubescent, trichomes (sessile or short-stalked), 4–7-rayed, rays distinct and furcate or bifurcate, (nearly smooth to finely tuberculate). | Perennials; (with a long taproot), caudex usually buried, simple, (enlarged, covered with marcescent leaf bases, crown rosulate and horizontal to somewhat ascending, forming a dense crown at apex of caudex); (silvery) pubescent throughout, trichomes (sessile or stipitate), 5–8-rayed, rays furcate or bifurcate, (rounded to umbonate, strongly tuberculate, less so or smooth over center). |
Stems | several from base, erect to decumbent or prostrate, (unbranched or branched, sometimes densely leaved), 1–3.5(–4.5) dm. |
few from base, decumbent, (arising laterally proximal to current season’s leaves), 0.3–0.8 dm. |
Basal leaves | blade obovate to broadly oblong, 1.5–5(–8) cm, margins lyrate-pinnatifid, dentate, or entire. |
(petiole slender); blade broadly obovate, or deltate to ovate or narrower, 1.5–3.5 cm, (base abruptly to gradually narrowed to petiole), margins entire or obscurely few-toothed, (apex usually obtuse, nearly acute in narrower leaves). |
Cauline leaves | (proximal sometimes petiolate, distal sessile); blade linear to oblanceolate, often falcate, 1–4(–7) cm, (proximal with base sometimes cuneate), margins entire, repand, or shallowly dentate. |
(2–5 per stem); blade oblanceolate to spatulate, similar to basal, margins entire, (apex acute). |
Racemes | dense. |
loose, (3–6-flowered). |
Flowers | sepals elliptic or oblong, 3–6.5 mm, (lateral pair subsaccate, median pair thickened apically, cucullate); petals (widely spreading at anthesis, yellow to orange, claw sometimes whitish), cuneate, obdeltate, or obovate, (tapering to claw), 5–8(–10) mm, (claw often widened at base). |
sepals narrowly oblong to linear, 7–9 mm; petals (erect), spatulate, 10–12(–15) mm. |
Fruiting pedicels | (divaricate-ascending, sigmoid or, sometimes, nearly straight), 5–15(–25) mm. |
(widely spreading to ascending, slightly curved or straight), 7–11 mm. |
Fruits | (shortly stipitate), subglobose, not or slightly compressed, (3–)4–8 mm; valves (not retaining seeds after dehiscence), glabrous throughout; replum as wide as or wider than fruit; ovules (8–)12–20(–26) per ovary; style (1.5–)2–4(–5) mm. |
(usually purplish in age), didymous, irregular and somewhat angular, not highly inflated, 4–11 × 10–13 mm, (coriaceous, papery, shallowly grooved distally and on sides, tapered and narrowed toward replum, base obtuse to truncate, apex with broad sinus to nearly truncate); valves (retaining seeds after dehiscence), densely pubescent, not silvery; replum elliptic to obovate, as wide as or wider than fruit, base rounded, margins sparsely pubescent or glabrous, apex rounded (with funicles); ovules 4 per ovary; style 5–7 mm, (glabrous). |
Seeds | flattened. |
flattened. |
2n | = 12, 32. |
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Physaria gordonii |
Physaria alpina |
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Phenology | Flowering Feb–Jul. | Flowering Jun–Jul. |
Habitat | Sandy or light soils, rocky plains, caprock ledges, gravelly brushland, sandy desert washes, stream bottoms, pastures, roadsides, abandoned fields | Whitish or red substrates from limestone or dolomite, ridge crests, rocky alpine tundra and open areas |
Elevation | 150-1700 m (500-5600 ft) | 3500-4000 m (11500-13100 ft) |
Distribution |
AZ; KS; NM; OK; TX; VA; Mexico (Chihuahua, Sonora)
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CO
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Discussion | Physaria gordonii was reported from Virginia in 1987 by Robert Wright from a Hampton Shale roadcut along the Blue Ridge Parkway, where it was probably a short-lived waif. Subspecies densifolia, of Lincoln County, New Mexico, of which there is now more material than Rollins had available in 1993, appears to represent a suite of environmentally determined, variable, and intergrading characteristics that does not merit taxonomic recognition. (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. 640. | FNA vol. 7, p. 624. |
Parent taxa | Brassicaceae > tribe Physarieae > Physaria | Brassicaceae > tribe Physarieae > Physaria |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Vesicaria gordonii, Alyssum gordonii, Lesquerella gordonii, Lesquerella gordonii var. densifolia, P. gordonii subsp. densifolia, P. gordonii var. densifolia | |
Name authority | (A. Gray) O’Kane & Al-Shehbaz: Novon 12: 323. (2002) | Rollins: Brittonia 33: 339. (1981) |
Web links |