Physaria pallida |
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white bladderpod |
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Habit | Annuals (winter); with a fine taproot; sparsely pubescent, trichomes (minute), 3- or 4-rayed, rays furcate or, sometimes, trifurcate. |
Stems | few to several from base, erect, (from basal leaf cluster, branched distally, flowering branches slender, subtended by bracts), 3–6 dm. |
Basal leaves | blade oblanceolate or broadly obovate, to 10 cm, margins usually sinuate-dentate or entire, sometimes lobed. |
Cauline leaves | (proximal shortly petiolate, distal sessile); blade oblanceolate to narrowly oblong, similar to basal, (distal with base slightly cuneate). |
Racemes | paniculate, (rachises and pedicels more densely pubescent than proximal leaves). |
Flowers | sepals elliptic, 3–7 mm, (median pair slightly thickened apically, cucullate); petals (white), broadly ovate, to 12 mm, (narrowing gradually to short claw). |
Fruiting pedicels | (widely divaricate-ascending and straight, or slightly recurved), 10–15 mm, (slender, pubescent). |
Fruits | (widely spreading to nearly pendent in age, shortly stipitate), globose or subglobose, not or slightly inflated, 3–10 mm; valves (not retaining seeds after dehiscence), glabrous; replum as wide as or wider than fruit; ovules 8–12 per ovary; style ca. 2 mm, (slender, fragile). |
Seeds | flattened. |
2n | = 12. |
Physaria pallida |
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Phenology | Flowering Apr–May. |
Habitat | Grassy openings of small glade prairies, outcrops |
Elevation | 90 m (300 ft) |
Distribution |
TX |
Discussion | Of conservation concern. Physaria pallida is known from the Weches Formation in San Augustine County. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 7, p. 656. |
Parent taxa | |
Sibling taxa | |
Synonyms | Vesicaria grandiflora var. pallida, Alyssum pallidum, Lesquerella pallida, Vesicaria pallida |
Name authority | (Torrey & A. Gray) O’Kane & Al-Shehbaz: Novon 12: 326. (2002) |
Web links |