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.

Habit: Annual to perennial herb; hairs 0 or simple. Leaf: basal rosetted, petioled, entire to pinnately lobed; mid-cauline petioled or sessile, base lobed to sagittate or wedge-shaped. Flower: sepals erect to reflexed, bases sac-like or not; petals linear to oblanceolate, spoon-shaped, or obovate, clawed or not, white to lavender or purple; stamens free (+- fused). Fruit: silique, dehiscent, linear, unsegmented, +- narrowed between seeds, cylindric or +- flat parallel to septum, stalked above receptacle; stigma entire. Seed: 1 row per chamber, +- flat; wing generally 0.
Etymology: (Greek: female foot, from fruit stalk above receptacle)
eFlora Treatment Author: Ihsan A. Al-Shehbaz
Reference: Al-Shehbaz 1973 Contr Gray Herb 204:1--148

Habit: Biennial, generally glaucous; hairs 0. Stem: (2)4.5--17(28) dm, straight, glabrous, glaucous, branched distally. Leaf: basal 5--31(54) cm, entire, petiole glabrous; mid-cauline sessile, tapered to base, base not lobed or sagittate. Inflorescence: open, expanded in fruit or not. Flower: petals 6--9(13) mm, 0.8--1.5(2) mm wide, spoon-shaped to oblanceolate, purple to white, not crinkled. Fruit: cylindric, narrowed between seeds; style 0.5--1.5 mm; pedicel straight, spreading. Seed: 14--40, 1--2 mm wide, oblong.
Note: Only 2 of 5 subspecies occur in California.