Physaria pruinosa

Perennials; caudex simple or branched, (covered with persistent leaf bases); densely pubescent, trichomes (sessile or subsessile), 4–7-rayed, rays furcate or bifurcate, (tuberculate throughout). Stems simple or several from base, decumbent or erect, (unbranched), to 2 dm. Basal leaves: (petiole sharply differentiated from blade, slender); blade suborbicular or obovate to rhombic, 4–8 cm, (base abruptly narrowed to petiole), margins entire, sinuate, or shallowly dentate, (abaxial surface densely pubescent, adaxial lightly pubescent). Cauline leaves: (proximal petiolate, distal sessile); blade obovate to rhombic, 0.8–2.3 cm, margins entire or shallowly toothed. Racemes dense, (somewhat elongated in fruit). Fruiting pedicels (horizontal to ascending, sigmoid or slightly curved), 8–11 mm, (stout). Flowers: sepals elliptic or oblong, ca. 6 mm, (lateral pair not saccate or subsaccate, cucullate, median pair thickened apically, cucullate); petals spatulate, ca. 9 mm, (claw expanded at base). Fruits (sessile or substipitate, often becoming copper-red in age), subglobose or ellipsoid, inflated, 6–9 mm, (firm, glossy); valves (not retaining seeds after dehiscence), glabrous throughout; replum as wide as or wider than fruit; ovules 4–8(–12) per ovary; style 3.5–7 mm. Seeds somewhat flattened.

Phenology: Flowering May–Jun(-Aug).
Habitat: Mancos slate or shale, meadows, gentle slopes, edges of ponderosa pine stands
Elevation: 2100-2600 m

Colo., N.Mex.

Discussion

Of conservation concern.

The one New Mexico population is near the border with Colorado, in Rio Arriba County.

Selected References

None.

Lower Taxa