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roundleaf bladderpod

Habit Perennials; caudex simple or branched, (thickened by persistent leaf bases); densely pubescent (foliage usually scabrous), trichomes (sessile or short-stalked), several-rayed, rays furcate near base, (usually strongly umbonate, roughly tuberculate, less so over umbo). Annuals, biennials, perennials, or subshrubs; eglandular.
Stems

few to several from base, erect or outer decumbent, 0.5–2.5 dm.

Basal leaves

blade suborbicular to elliptic or ovate or deltate, 0.5–2(–6.5) cm, margins entire or shallowly dentate.

Cauline leaves

(proximal shortly petiolate, distal usually sessile);

blade narrowly elliptic or obovate, (0.5–)1–2.5(–4) cm, margins entire.

petiolate, sessile, or subsessile;

blade base usually not auriculate (except Paysonia), margins entire, dentate, or sinuate.

Racemes

compact, (± subumbellate to densely corymbiform, elongated or not).

ebracteate, often elongated in fruit.

Flowers

sepals ± elliptic, 4.5–7(–8.5) mm, (median pair thickened apically);

petals (sometimes white), suborbicular to obovate or obdeltate, 6.5–15 mm, (base narrowing to broad claw, apex sometimes emarginated).

actinomorphic;

sepals erect, spreading, ascending, or reflexed, lateral pair seldom saccate basally;

petals white, yellow, lavender, purple, violet, orange, or brown [pink], claw present, often distinct;

filaments unappendaged, not winged;

pollen (3 or) 4–11-colpate.

Fruiting pedicels

(usually spreading at right angles, sometimes nearly erect, ± straight), 5–15(–20) mm, (stout).

Fruits

(sessile or shortly stipitate, less than 1 mm), subglobose to broadly ellipsoid, inflated or slightly compressed (terete or subterete), (4–)5–8(–9) mm;

valves (not retaining seeds after dehiscence), glabrous;

replum as wide as or wider than fruit;

ovules 8–16 per ovary;

style 4–8(–9) mm.

silicles or siliques, dehiscent, unsegmented, terete, latiseptate, or angustiseptate;

ovules 2–100 per ovary;

style usually distinct;

stigma entire or strongly 2-lobed.

Seeds

flattened.

biseriate, uniseriate, or aseriate;

cotyledons accumbent or incumbent.

Trichomes

usually short-stalked, subsessile, or sessile, sometimes long-stalked, stellate, scalelike, subdendritic, or forked, sometimes mixed with simple ones.

Physaria ovalifolia

Brassicaceae tribe physarieae

Distribution
from FNA
CO; KS; NE; NM; OK; TX
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
North America; Mexico; South America; Asia (ne Russia)
Discussion

Subspecies 2 (2 in the flora).

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

Genera 7, species ca. 130 (7 genera, 105 species in the flora).

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

Key
1. Caudices branched (well-developed); petals usually yellow, rarely white, 6.5-12(-14) mm, usually 1.5 times or less as long as sepals; racemes usually not elongated (subumbellate).
subsp. ovalifolia
1. Caudices usually simple; petals white, (9-)11-15 mm, often 2 times as long as sepals; racemes usually elongated.
subsp. alba
Source FNA vol. 7, p. 655. FNA vol. 7, p. 604.
Parent taxa Brassicaceae > tribe Physarieae > Physaria Brassicaceae
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. 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. 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
Subordinate taxa
P. ovalifolia subsp. alba, P. ovalifolia subsp. ovalifolia
Synonyms Lesquerella ovalifolia, Lesquerella engelmannii subsp. ovalifolia
Name authority (Rydberg) O’Kane & Al-Shehbaz: Novon 12: 326. (2002) B. L. Robinson: in A. Gray et al., Syn. Fl. N. Amer. 1(1,1): 100. (1895)
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