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: WALLFLOWER
Habit: Annual to subshrub [shrub]; hairs sessile, appressed, 2--5(8)-rayed. Leaf: basal rosetted, petioled, entire, dentate, or pinnately lobed; cauline sessile or petioled, bases not lobed. Inflorescence: elongated. Flower: sepals oblong to linear, erect, base of lateral pair sac-like or not; petals clawed, yellow or orange (white, purple, or brown). Fruit: silique, dehiscent, linear, cylindric, 4-sided, or flat parallel or perpendicular to septum, unsegmented; stigma entire or 2-lobed. Seed: 15--100, in 1 or 2 rows, plump or flattened, oblong, winged or not.
Etymology: (Greek: to help or save, from alleged medicinal properties of some species) Note: Fls, fruit, basal leaves needed for identification. All native California taxa related to Erysimum capitatum; hybridization blurs limits of some species.
eFlora Treatment Author: Ihsan A. Al-Shehbaz
Reference: Rossbach 1958 Madroño 14:261--267
Unabridged Reference: Rollins 1993 Cruciferae of continental N.Am. Stanford Univ Press.