Common Name: MUSTARD FAMILY
Habit: Annual to shrub; sap pungent, watery. Leaf: generally simple, alternate; generally both basal, cauline; stipules 0. Inflorescence: generally raceme, generally not bracted. Flower: bisexual, generally radial; sepals 4, generally free; petals (0)4, forming a cross, generally white or yellow to purple; stamens generally 6 (2 or 4), 4 long, 2 short (3 pairs of unequal length); ovary 1, superior, generally 2-chambered with septum connecting 2 parietal placentas; style 1, stigma entire or 2-lobed. Fruit: capsule, generally 2-valved, "silique" (length >= 3 × width) or "silicle" (length < 3 × width), dehiscent by 2 valves or indehiscent, cylindric or flat parallel or perpendicular to septum, segmented or not. Seed: 1--many, in 1 or 2 rows per chamber, winged or wingless; embryo strongly curved.
Genera In Family: +- 330 genera, 3780 species: worldwide, especially temperate. Note: Highest diversity in Mediterranean area, mountains of southwestern Asia, adjacent central Asia, western North America; some Brassica species are oil or vegetable crops; Arabidopsis thaliana used in experimental molecular biology; many species are ornamentals, weeds. Aurinia saxatilis (L.) Desvaux in cultivation only. Aubrieta occasional waif in central NCoR, Carrichtera annua (L.) DC. in SCo, Iberis sempervirens L., Iberis umbellata L. in PR, Teesdalia coronopifolia (Bergeret) Thell., Teesdalia nudicaulis (L.) W.T. Aiton in southern NCoRO, CCo. Cardaria, Coronopus moved to Lepidium; Caulostramina to Hesperidanthus; Guillenia to Caulanthus; Heterodraba to Athysanus; California taxa of Lesquerella to Physaria; Malcolmia africana to Strigosella.
eFlora Treatment Author: Ihsan A. Al-Shehbaz, except as noted
Scientific Editor: Douglas H. Goldman, Bruce G. Baldwin.

Common Name: ROCKCRESS
Habit: Annual, biennial, perennial herb; base not woody; hairs simple, forked, or stellate; caudex branched or not. Stem: branched or not, leafy. Leaf: basal rosetted, petioled, entire or dentate; cauline sessile, entire or dentate, base lobed or not. Flower: sepals erect or ascending, base of lateral pair sac-like or not; petals spoon-shaped to oblong, oblanceolate, or obovate, white to pink or deep purple. Fruit: silique, erect to spreading, linear, dehiscent, unsegmented, straight, flat parallel to septum, glabrous. Seed: 12--110, 1 row per chamber, flat, winged or margined.
Etymology: (Latin: of Arabia) Note: Most species of Arabis in TJM (1993) moved to Boechera; Arabis glabra to Turritis. California record of Arabis aculeolata Greene not confirmed.
eFlora Treatment Author: Ihsan A. Al-Shehbaz