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

Gordon's bladderpod

Goodding's bladderpod

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). Annuals or biennials; without caudex, (cespitose); densely pubescent, trichomes (sessile or short-stalked), few-rayed, rays (ascending or erect), simple or infrequently furcate near base, (long and slender, sometimes with U-shaped notch on one side, smooth or finely tuberculate).
Stems

several from base, erect to decumbent or prostrate, (unbranched or branched, sometimes densely leaved), 1–3.5(–4.5) dm.

several from base, erect (and stout) or outer ones decumbent, (unbranched or branched, stiff and densely foliate, sterile leaf-bearing branches sometimes present), to 4 dm.

Basal leaves

blade obovate to broadly oblong, 1.5–5(–8) cm, margins lyrate-pinnatifid, dentate, or entire.

blade obovate or elliptic, to ca. 3 cm, margins sinuate or shallowly dentate.

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.

(proximal usually shortly petiolate, distal sessile);

blade obovate to broadly elliptic, 1–3 cm, margins sinuate or shallowly toothed.

Racemes

dense.

dense, compact, (elongated in fruit).

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 elliptic or narrowly elliptic or oblong, (3.8–)4.5–5.5 mm, (lateral pair cucullate, very convex, median pair tapering to base, thickened apically, cucullate, often slightly keeled);

petals cuneate, 6.5–8 mm, (slightly expanded at base, margins sinuate, apex retuse or entire).

Fruiting pedicels

(divaricate-ascending, sigmoid or, sometimes, nearly straight), 5–15(–25) mm.

(recurved, curved or sigmoid), somewhat expanded apically.

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.

(sessile or substipitate), oblong or broadly elliptic, compressed (latiseptate), 5–8 mm;

valves pubescent, trichomes spreading, sparsely pubescent inside;

ovules 4–6 per ovary;

style 3–5 mm.

Seeds

flattened.

flattened.

2n

= 12, 32.

Physaria gordonii

Physaria gooddingii

Phenology Flowering Feb–Jul. Flowering Jun–Sep.
Habitat Sandy or light soils, rocky plains, caprock ledges, gravelly brushland, sandy desert washes, stream bottoms, pastures, roadsides, abandoned fields Mountainous areas, open areas in pinyon-juniper and ponderosa pine forests
Elevation 150-1700 m (500-5600 ft) 1800-2300 m (5900-7500 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AZ; KS; NM; OK; TX; VA; Mexico (Chihuahua, Sonora)
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
AZ; NM
[BONAP county map]
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.)

Physaria gooddingii (found in the mountains of Catron, Sierra, and western Socorro counties, New Mexico, and in Greenlee County, Arizona) is similar to 9. P. aurea (found farther east), but differs in having trichomes with ascending or erect rays (rather than appressed) and fruits that are strongly latiseptate (rather than not, or very little, compressed), a state that is infrequent in the genus.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Source FNA vol. 7, p. 640. FNA vol. 7, p. 639.
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. 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. 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. 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
Synonyms Vesicaria gordonii, Alyssum gordonii, Lesquerella gordonii, Lesquerella gordonii var. densifolia, P. gordonii subsp. densifolia, P. gordonii var. densifolia Lesquerella gooddingii
Name authority (A. Gray) O’Kane & Al-Shehbaz: Novon 12: 323. (2002) (Rollins & E. A. Shaw) O’Kane & Al-Shehbaz: Novon 12: 323. (2002)
Web links