Common Name: SPIDERFLOWER FAMILY Habit: Annual, perennial herb, shrub, often ill-smelling. Leaf: generally 1-palmate, generally alternate, generally petioled; stipules generally minute, often bristle-like or hairy; leaflets 0 or 3--7. Inflorescence: raceme, head, or flowers 1, expanded in fruit; bracts generally 3-parted below, distal simple, or 0. Flower: generally bisexual, radial to +- bilateral; sepals generally 4, free or fused, generally persistent; petals generally 4, free, +- clawed; stamens generally 6, free, exserted, anthers generally coiling at dehiscence; ovary superior, generally on stalk-like receptacle, chamber generally 1, placentas generally 2, parietal, style 1, persistent, stigma generally minute, +- head-like. Fruit: 2 nutlets or generally capsule, septicidal; valves generally 2, deciduous, leaving septum (frame-like placentas) behind; pedicel generally +- reflexed to spreading. Genera In Family: 13 genera, +- 150 species: widespread tropics to arid temperate. Note: Treated as Capparaceae in TJM (1993); species of Carsonia, Oxystylis, Peritoma, and Wislizenia moved to Cleomella (Roalson et al. 2015). eFlora Treatment Author: Robert E. Preston & Staria S. Vanderpool Scientific Editor: Bruce G. Baldwin & Thomas J. Rosatti
NATIVE Leaf: many; petiole 1.5--4.5 cm; leaflets 1.6--4.5 cm. Inflorescence: appearing after leaves, 5--30 cm; pedicels 1--2.5 cm, green to purple. Flower: sepals 4--7 mm, purple; petals 6--13 mm, white, claw 4--5 mm; stamens 10--20, 5--40 mm, filaments purple, anthers 1--1.3 mm; nectary bright orange, spheric, concave at top, 2--2.3 mm; style 5--17 mm, deciduous, stigma purple. Fruit: 4--7 cm, 5--9 mm wide, green. Chromosomes: 2n=20. Ecology: Gravel bars, roadsides, disturbed areas; Elevation: 30--1680 m. Bioregional Distribution: NCoRI, CaR, n&c SNF, ScV, MP; Distribution Outside California: to eastern Canada, southeastern United States. Flowering Time: Jun--Sep Synonyms: Polanisia trachysperma Torr. & A. Gray Unabridged Note: Reports of Polanisia dodecandra subsp. dodecandra from California evidently in error. Jepson eFlora Author: Robert E. Preston & Staria S. Vanderpool Reference: Inda et al. 2008 Pl Syst Evol 274:111--126 Index of California Plant Names (ICPN; linked via the Jepson Online Interchange) Previous taxon: Polanisia Next taxon: Comandraceae
Botanical illustration including Polanisia dodecandra subsp. trachysperma
Citation for this treatment: Robert E. Preston & Staria S. Vanderpool 2012, Polanisia dodecandra subsp. trachysperma, in Jepson Flora Project (eds.) Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/eflora_display.php?tid=52394, accessed on April 17, 2024.
Citation for the whole project: Jepson Flora Project (eds.) 2024, Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/, accessed on April 17, 2024.
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(Note: any qualifiers in the taxon distribution description, such as 'northern', 'southern', 'adjacent' etc., are not reflected in the map above, and in some cases indication of a taxon in a subdivision is based on a single collection or author-verified occurence).
Data provided by the participants of the
Consortium of California Herbaria.
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CCH collections by month
Duplicates counted once; synonyms included.
Species do not include records of infraspecific taxa, if there are more than 1 infraspecific taxon in CA.
Blue line denotes eFlora flowering time (fruiting time in some monocot genera).