Physaria pallida |
Physaria gordonii |
|
---|---|---|
white bladderpod |
Gordon's bladderpod |
|
Habit | Annuals (winter); with a fine taproot; sparsely pubescent, trichomes (minute), 3- or 4-rayed, rays furcate or, sometimes, trifurcate. | 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). |
Stems | few to several from base, erect, (from basal leaf cluster, branched distally, flowering branches slender, subtended by bracts), 3–6 dm. |
several from base, erect to decumbent or prostrate, (unbranched or branched, sometimes densely leaved), 1–3.5(–4.5) dm. |
Basal leaves | blade oblanceolate or broadly obovate, to 10 cm, margins usually sinuate-dentate or entire, sometimes lobed. |
blade obovate to broadly oblong, 1.5–5(–8) cm, margins lyrate-pinnatifid, dentate, or entire. |
Cauline leaves | (proximal shortly petiolate, distal sessile); blade oblanceolate to narrowly oblong, similar to basal, (distal with base slightly cuneate). |
(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. |
Racemes | paniculate, (rachises and pedicels more densely pubescent than proximal leaves). |
dense. |
Flowers | sepals elliptic, 3–7 mm, (median pair slightly thickened apically, cucullate); petals (white), broadly ovate, to 12 mm, (narrowing gradually to short claw). |
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). |
Fruiting pedicels | (widely divaricate-ascending and straight, or slightly recurved), 10–15 mm, (slender, pubescent). |
(divaricate-ascending, sigmoid or, sometimes, nearly straight), 5–15(–25) mm. |
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). |
(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. |
Seeds | flattened. |
flattened. |
2n | = 12. |
= 12, 32. |
Physaria pallida |
Physaria gordonii |
|
Phenology | Flowering Apr–May. | Flowering Feb–Jul. |
Habitat | Grassy openings of small glade prairies, outcrops | Sandy or light soils, rocky plains, caprock ledges, gravelly brushland, sandy desert washes, stream bottoms, pastures, roadsides, abandoned fields |
Elevation | 90 m (300 ft) | 150-1700 m (500-5600 ft) |
Distribution |
TX |
AZ; KS; NM; OK; TX; VA; Mexico (Chihuahua, Sonora)
|
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.) |
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.) |
Source | FNA vol. 7, p. 656. | FNA vol. 7, p. 640. |
Parent taxa | ||
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Vesicaria grandiflora var. pallida, Alyssum pallidum, Lesquerella pallida, Vesicaria pallida | Vesicaria gordonii, Alyssum gordonii, Lesquerella gordonii, Lesquerella gordonii var. densifolia, P. gordonii subsp. densifolia, P. gordonii var. densifolia |
Name authority | (Torrey & A. Gray) O’Kane & Al-Shehbaz: Novon 12: 326. (2002) | (A. Gray) O’Kane & Al-Shehbaz: Novon 12: 323. (2002) |
Web links |