Lyrocarpa
London J. Bot. 4: 76, plate 4. 1845.
Subshrubs [annuals]; (caudex woody); not scapose; pubescent [glabrate], trichomes minutely stalked or sessile, dendritic [rarely few-rayed]. Stems erect to decumbent, usually branched distally. Leaves basal and cauline; petiolate; basal not rosulate, caducous; cauline blade (base not auriculate), margins usually pinnatisect, pinnatifid, or dentate, rarely entire, (canescent to sparsely pubescent). Racemes (corymbose, several-flowered, lax), considerably elongated in fruit. Fruiting pedicels divaricate, ascending, or reflexed, slender. Flowers: sepals erect, (connivent), linear to oblong-linear, lateral pair saccate basally, (often densely pubescent); petals yellowish or yellow-green to brown, brownish purple, or salmon, linear or linear-oblanceolate [spatulate], (sometimes twisted with age, considerably longer than sepals), claw well-differentiated from blade, (equal to or longer than sepal, apex acute or acuminate [obtuse]); stamens (erect), strongly tetradynamous; filaments not dilated basally; anthers linear, (apiculate); nectar glands lateral, 1 on each side of lateral stamen. Fruits silicles or siliques, sessile, not torulose, obcordiform to panduriform, strongly angustiseptate; valves strongly keeled, pubescent or glabrate; replum rounded; septum complete; ovules 6–16[–20] per ovary; style obsolete or distinct, (short); stigma capitate, prominently 2-lobed (lobes spreading). Seeds uniseriate, flattened, not winged, orbicular [broadly ovate]; seed coat mucilaginous when wetted; cotyledons accumbent. x = 10.
Distribution
sw United States, nw Mexico.
Discussion
Species 3 (1 in the flora).
Lyrocarpa xanti Brandegee (southern Baja California) is an annual with purple, spatulate petals, deltate and sparsely pubescent leaves, often reflexed fruiting pedicels, and panduriform fruits. By contrast, L. linearifolia Rollins (Isla Angel de la Guarda and San Esteban Island, Baja California) is a subshrub with brown, linear petals, linear or pinnatifid and canescent leaves, spreading fruiting pedicels, and broadly obcordate fruits.