Perennials; (cespitose, deep-rooted); scapose; pubescent, trichomes short-stalked, dendritic or irregularly forked, (soft). Stems erect, unbranched. Leaves (persistent) basal; rosulate; petiolate; blade margins entire. Racemes (corymbose, few- to several-flowered), not or slightly elongated in fruit. Fruiting pedicels ascending to suberect, slender. Flowers: sepals (early caducous, erect), oblong, (pubescent), base of lateral pair not saccate; petals white to purplish, oblanceolate, (slightly longer than sepals); stamens tetradynamous; filaments not dilated basally; anthers ovate; nectar glands confluent, subtending bases of stamens. Fruits (erect, siliques or silicles), sessile or short-stipitate, lanceolate, broadly oblong to narrowly ovate, not torulose, latiseptate; valves each with prominent midvein and somewhat anastomosing lateral veins, glabrous; replum rounded; septum complete; ovules 10–24 per ovary; stigma capitate. Seeds biseriate, somewhat flattened, not winged, oblong to ovoid; seed coat (silvery, papillate), not mucilaginous when wetted; cotyledons accumbent. x = 7.

Distribution

w United States.

Discussion

Species 1.

Anelsonia is most closely related to Boechera and Phoenicaulis, from which it is readily distinguished by its scapose habit and papillate seeds.

Selected References

None.

Lower Taxa

Anelsonia eurycarpa