Flora of North America species comparison

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Smelowskia

candytuft, false candytuft, smelowskia
Habit Plants cespitose, caudex well-developed, thick, often-branched, covered with persistent petiolar remains; not scapose; usually pubescent.
Stems

erect to decumbent, unbranched or branched distally, densely pubescent.
Leaves

basal and cauline;

petiolate or sessile;

basal rosulate, petiolate, blade margins usually 1- or 2-pinnatisect, rarely entire.
Racemes

(corymbose, several-flowered), often considerably elongated in fruit.
Flowers

sepals (sometimes persistent), oblong [ovate];

petals spatulate to obovate or suborbicular, (longer than sepals), claw differentiated from blade, (apex rounded);

stamens slightly tetradynamous;

filaments often dilated basally;

anthers ovate or oblong, (apex obtuse);

nectar glands usually confluent, subtending bases of stamens, median glands present or not.
Fruiting pedicels

ascending, spreading, suberect, or divaricate [recurved], slender.
Fruits

siliques or silicles, usually sessile, rarely shortly stipitate, linear, oblong, obovoid, ellipsoid, spatulate, oblanceolate, suboblong, or pyriform [fusiform, ovoid, suborbicular], smooth, 4-angled, angustiseptate, terete, or subterete [latiseptate];

valves each with prominent or obscure midvein, usually glabrous;

replum rounded;

septum complete or perforated;

ovules 4–18 per ovary;

stigma capitate.
Seeds

plump, not winged, usually oblong, rarely oblong-lanceolate;

seed coat (minutely reticulate), not mucilaginous when wetted;

cotyledons incumbent or accumbent.

Smelowskia
Distribution
from USDA
North America; e Asia; c Asia
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Species 25 (7 in the flora).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Key
1. Basal leaves: blade margins entire, apically 3 or 5-toothed or -lobed, or palmately lobed
→ 2
1. Basal leaves: blade margins 1- or 2-pinnatisect or pinnatifid
→ 4
2. Basal leaves: blade margins deeply palmately (3 or) 5 (or 7)-lobed; fruiting pedicels secund; sepals usually persistent; fruits angustiseptate, (8-)12-28 × 4-8 mm; ovules 10-18 per ovary.
S. borealis
2. Basal leaves: blade margins entire or apically 3 or 5-toothed or -lobed; fruiting pedicels not secund; sepals caducous; fruits subterete or slightly 4-angled, 5-10 × 1.5-3 mm; ovules 4-8 per ovary
→ 3
3. Basal leaf blade surfaces densely silvery villous, trichomes mostly simple, 1-1.8 mm; petals lavender to purplish; fruiting pedicels 11-27 mm; fruit valves each with obscure midvein; ovules 4 per ovary; seeds 2.2-2.7 mm.
S. johnsonii
3. Basal leaf blade surfaces densely grayish tomentose, trichomes mostly dendritic with fewer simple ones, to 1 mm; petals white or creamy white; fruiting pedicels 4-12 mm; fruit valves each with prominent midvein; ovules 4-8 per ovary; seeds 1.5-2 mm.
S. porsildii
4. Sepals persistent; fruits 2-6 mm, bases obtuse, valves each with obscure midvein.
S. ovalis
4. Sepals caducous; fruits 5-13 mm, bases cuneate, valves each with prominent midvein
→ 5
5. Fruits pyriform, subterete, apices rounded; ovules 4 per ovary; seeds 2.5-3.2 × 1-1.5 mm.
S. pyriformis
5. Fruits fusiform, ellipsoid, oblong, or linear, 4-angled, apices cuneate; ovules 8-12 (-14) per ovary; seeds 1.1-2.2 × 0.6-1.1 mm
→ 6
6. Fruiting pedicels suberect to ascending, subappressed to rachises, forming less than 40˚ angle; seeds 1.1-1.9 × 0.6-0.9 mm; Alberta, British Columbia, Mountain and Pacific states.
S. americana
6. Fruiting pedicels usually spreading to divaricate, rarely divaricate-ascending, not appressed to rachises, often forming greater than 40˚ angle; seeds 1.7-2.2 × 0.9-1.1 mm; Alaska, Northwest Territories, Yukon.
S. media
Source FNA vol. 7, p. 671. Author: Ihsan A. Al-Shehbaz.
Parent taxa Brassicaceae > tribe Smelowskieae
Subordinate taxa
S. americana, S. borealis, S. johnsonii, S. media, S. ovalis, S. porsildii, S. pyriformis
Synonyms Acroschizocarpus, Ermania, Melanidion
Name authority C. A. Meyer: in C. F. von Ledebour, Icon. Pl. 2: 17, plate 151. (1830)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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