Flora of North America species comparison

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Teesdalia

shepardscress, shepherd's cress
Habit Annuals [perennials]; scapose; glabrous or sparsely pubescent.
Stems

(simple or few to several from base), erect or ascending, unbranched.
Leaves

basal and cauline;

petiolate or sessile;

basal (persistent), rosulate, petiolate, blade margins usually lyrate-pinnatifid or pinnatisect, rarely entire or dentate;

cauline (0–4), sessile, blade margins entire or dentate.
Racemes

(corymbose, several-flowered).
Flowers

(actinomorphic or zygomorphic);

sepals ascending to spreading, ovate, glabrous;

petals white, oblong or obovate, (equal to or longer than sepals, or lateral pair much larger), claw undifferentiated from blade, (apex obtuse);

stamens (6) tetradynamous, or (4) equal;

filaments dilated basally (appendaged);

anthers ovate;

nectar glands lateral, 1 on each side of lateral stamen, median glands absent.
Fruiting pedicels

divaricate, slender.
Fruits

(often divaricate), sessile, broadly obcordate to suborbicular, slightly keeled, angustiseptate (strongly compressed), (apex notched);

valves prominently veined, (apex narrowly winged), glabrous;

replum rounded;

septum complete;

ovules 4 per ovary;

style absent or not;

stigma capitate, entire.
Seeds

uniseriate, slightly compressed, not winged, broadly ovate;

seed coat (rugulose), copiously mucilaginous when wetted;

cotyledons accumbent.
x

= 9.

Teesdalia
Distribution
from USDA
Europe; sw Asia (Middle East); Africa [Introduced in North America; introduced also in South America (Chile), n, c Europe, nw Africa, Australia]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Species 3 (2 in the flora).

Teesdalia conferta (Lagasca) O. Appel is known from Europe (Portugal, Spain). For a summary of the nomenclature of Teesdalia and references on its species introduced in North America, see I. A. Al-Shehbaz (1986).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Key
1. Flowers zygomorphic; stamens 6, tetradynamous; basal leaf blades: lateral lobes obtuse; styles ca. 0.1 mm.
T. nudicaulis
1. Flowers actinomorphic; stamens 4, equal; basal leaf blades: lateral lobes acute; styles 0 mm.
T. coronopifolia
Source FNA vol. 7, p. 564. Author: Ihsan A. Al-Shehbaz.
Parent taxa Brassicaceae > tribe Iberideae
Subordinate taxa
T. coronopifolia, T. nudicaulis
Name authority W. T. Aiton: in W. Aiton and W. T. Aiton, Hortus Kew. 4: 83. (1812)
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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