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; hairs simple, or short-stalked with 2--4-rays. Stem: simple or branched at base, leafy. Leaf: basal not rosetted, short petioled, entire or dentate; cauline short-petioled or sessile, base not lobed, entire or dentate. Inflorescence: 1-sided; bracts 0. Flower: sepals erect, early-deciduous, base not sac-like; petals < to > sepals or rudimentary, white. Fruit: silicle, reflexed, indehiscent or late-dehiscent, unsegmented, round or obovate to elliptic, flat parallel to septum, glabrous to hairy; pedicel recurved. Seed: 1 or 6--12, in 1 row, flat, not winged.
Etymology: (Greek: without fruit fringe)
Unabridged Note: Jepson 1901 Flower W Calif:224 united Athysanus and Heterodraba under the former, thus establishing nomenclatural priority. The 2 genera are indistinguishable in every character except those in the key below. Molecular data support the placement of the combined genus near Draba and Arabis.
eFlora Treatment Author: Ihsan A. Al-Shehbaz