Physaria gordonii |
Physaria obdeltata |
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Gordon's bladderpod |
Middle Butte bladderpod |
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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; caudex simple; densely pubescent, trichomes (appressed in layers), 5–7-rayed, rays usually bifurcate, sometimes furcate, (thickened toward center). |
Stems | several from base, erect to decumbent or prostrate, (unbranched or branched, sometimes densely leaved), 1–3.5(–4.5) dm. |
simple from base, prostrate to decumbent, (unbranched, from within and below leaf clusters, slender), 0.2–0.8 dm. |
Basal leaves | blade obovate to broadly oblong, 1.5–5(–8) cm, margins lyrate-pinnatifid, dentate, or entire. |
(tufted, erect or ascending, silvery); blade linear to oblanceolate or (outer) oblanceolate to obovate or rhombic, 1.5–3.3 cm, (base sometimes subhastate), margins entire or dentate, (often involute). |
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. |
blade nearly linear, to 1.5 cm, margins entire. |
Racemes | dense. |
dense, (subcorymbose). |
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 (yellow-green), lanceolate, (2.5–)3.5–4.5 mm; petals spatulate to oblanceolate, 4–6.5 mm. |
Fruiting pedicels | (divaricate-ascending, sigmoid or, sometimes, nearly straight), 5–15(–25) mm. |
(recurved), 5–8 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 pendent), obdeltate, compressed (angustiseptate), 2–4 mm, (wider than long, base tapered to acute angle, apex truncate with inflated shoulders); valves densely pubescent; (septum obsolete or with a narrow fringe inside of replum, funicles attached close to replum apex); ovules 4 per ovary; style 2–4 mm, (slender). |
Seeds | flattened. |
plump, (mucilaginous when wetted). |
2n | = 12, 32. |
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Physaria gordonii |
Physaria obdeltata |
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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 | Clayey, silty, or gravelly soils, overlaying basalt lava flows, silty playas, sagebrush, barren areas |
Elevation | 150-1700 m (500-5600 ft) | 1300-1700 m (4300-5600 ft) |
Distribution |
AZ; KS; NM; OK; TX; VA; Mexico (Chihuahua, Sonora)
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ID |
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 obdeltata is known from the eastern Snake River Plain. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 7, p. 640. | FNA vol. 7, p. 654. |
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 | Lesquerella obdeltata |
Name authority | (A. Gray) O’Kane & Al-Shehbaz: Novon 12: 323. (2002) | (Rollins) O’Kane & Al-Shehbaz: Novon 12: 326. (2002) |
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