Lobularia

Plants not scapose; pubescent, trichomes appressed, unicellular, medifixed. Stems erect, procumbent, or decumbent [ascending], branched basally [and distally]. Leaves cauline; not rosulate; blade (base not auriculate), margins entire. Racemes (several-flowered, sometimes bracteate at base). Fruiting pedicels ascending [divaricate], slender. Flowers: sepals oblong [ovate]; petals obovate [spatulate or orbicular], claw differentiated from blade, (margins entire, apex often rounded); stamens slightly tetradynamous; filaments dilated basally; anthers ovate, (apex obtuse); nectar glands (8): 4 lateral (rudimentary), 4 median (cylindrical). Fruits sessile or shortly stipitate, elliptic-suborbicular [orbicular, obovate, elliptic], smooth, convex, latiseptate; valves (papery), each 1-veined, pubescent; replum rounded; septum complete; ovules 2–10 per ovary; stigma capitate. Seeds uniseriate or biseriate, strongly flattened, winged or not, lenticular or ovate [orbicular]; seed coat (reticulate), mucilaginous when wetted; cotyledons accumbent. x = 11, 12, 23.

Distribution

s Europe, sw Asia, n Africa (Mediterranean region), introduced also nearly worldwide.

Discussion

Species 4 (1 in the flora).

Selected References

Borgen, L. 1987. Lobularia (Cruciferae). A biosystematic study with special reference to the Macaronesian region. Opera Bot. 91: 1–96.

Lower Taxa

Lobularia maritima