Habit: Perennial herb, taprooted.
Stem: generally 0 or short.
Leaf: generally basal, membranous to +- leathery or fleshy; blade oblong to widely ovate or round, palmately or pinnately lobed to 1--2-pinnately or -ternate-pinnately dissected or compound, segments or leaflets linear to obovate, entire to variously lobed, generally spine-tipped.
Inflorescence: umbels compound, generally terminal, scapose, open to spheric, dense, peduncled; bracts, bractlets conspicuous, scarious (or 0); rays few to many, occasionally 0, pedicels occasionally 0.
Flower: calyx lobes prominent to 0; petals oblong to obovate, white, yellow, or purple, tips narrowed; ovary tip projection 0.
Fruit: oblong to ovate, +- cylindric to compressed front-to-back; ribs unequal[equal], marginal, some or all thin- or corky-winged (some or all wingless); oil tubes 1--several per rib-interval; fruit axis 0 or divided to base.
Seed: face flat to longitudinally concave or grooved.
Species In Genus: +- 50 species: western North America.
Etymology: (Greek: wave wing)
Toxicity: Some species outside California are TOXIC to livestock.
Note: Generic boundaries fluctuating.
Jepson eFlora Author: Lincoln Constance & Margriet Wetherwax
Reference: [Mathias 1930 Ann Missouri Bot Gard 17:213--476]
Index of California Plant Names (ICPN; linked via the Jepson Online Interchange)Key to Cymopterus
Previous taxon: Cyclospermum leptophyllumNext taxon: Cymopterus aboriginum