Orychophragmus

Annuals or biennials [perennials]; (sometimes rhizomatous); not scapose; pubescent or glabrous. Stems erect or ascending, unbranched or branched distally. Leaves basal and cauline; petiolate or sessile; basal not rosulate, petiolate or sessile, blade (simple or pinnatisect with 1–6 leafletlike lobes on each side), margins crenate; cauline petiolate or sessile, blade (base sometimes auriculate or amplexicaul), margins entire, dentate, or, sometimes, with 1–4 lateral lobes [crenate or serrate]. Racemes (corymbose, several-flowered). Fruiting pedicels divaricate-ascending [divaricate, recurved], slender or stout. Flowers: sepals erect [ascending], linear [oblong], lateral pair strongly [slightly] saccate basally; petals purple, lavender, or white, broadly obovate [narrowly obcordate], claw obscurely to considerably differentiated from blade ([shorter than] as long as sepals, apex rounded [emarginate]); stamens tetradynamous; filaments dilated basally; anthers linear [oblong], (apiculate); nectar glands (2), lateral, semiannular or annular. Fruits siliques, dehiscent, sessile or shortly stipitate, linear, torulose, terete or somewhat 4-angled; valves (leathery), each with prominent midvein, usually glabrous, rarely densely hirsute; replum rounded; septum complete; ovules [20–]40–70 per ovary; stigma capitate, 2-lobed (lobes distinct, decurrent). Seeds uniseriate, plump, not winged, oblong; seed coat (alveolate-reticulate), not mucilaginous when wetted; cotyledons conduplicate. x = 12.

Distribution

Va., Asia (China, Japan, Korea).

Discussion

Species 2 (1 in the flora).

Orychophragmus is fairly similar to, and closely related to, Moricandia, and they can easily be misidentified. The former has petiolate, pinnately divided, broadly auriculate proximalmost leaves, non-cucullate median sepals, apiculate anthers, and non-connivent stigma lobes. By contrast, Moricandia has sessile, entire, non-auriculate proximalmost leaves, cucullate median sepals, non-apiculate anthers, and connivent stigma lobes.

Orychophragmus limprichtianus (Pax) Al-Shehbaz & G. Yang is cultivated as an ornamental, rarely escaping.

Selected References

Al-Shehbaz, I. A. and Yang G. 2000. A revision of the Chinese endemic Orychophragmus (Brassicaceae). Novon 10: 349–353.

Lower Taxa

Orychophragmus violaceus