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Capsella bursa-pastoris


Higher Taxonomy
Family: Brassicaceae (Cruciferae)View DescriptionDichotomous Key
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.
Genus: CapsellaView Description 


Common Name: SHEPHERD'S PURSE
Habit: Annual, biennial; hairs sessile, stellate, occasionally also simple. Leaf: basal rosetted, petioled, pinnately lobed to dentate or entire; cauline sessile, sagittate to basally lobed or clasping. Inflorescence: elongated. Flower: sepals erect to ascending, base sac-like; petals obovate to spoon-shaped, white or +- pink. Fruit: silicle, obtriangular-obcordate, dehiscent, unsegmented, flat perpendicular to septum; valves veined; stigma entire. Seed: (10)20--40, in 2 rows per chamber, wingless.
Etymology: (Latin: little box resembling a medieval wallet or purse)
eFlora Treatment Author: Ihsan A. Al-Shehbaz
Capsella bursa-pastoris (L.) Medik.
NATURALIZED
Habit: Stellate hairs 3--5-rayed, simple hairs generally at plant base. Stem: erect, simple or branched distally, (0.5)1--5(7) dm. Leaf: basal 3--6 cm, oblanceolate, +- entire to pinnately lobed or dissected; cauline 1--5.5(8) cm, oblong, linear to lanceolate. Flower: sepals 1.5--2 mm; petals (1.5)2--4(5) mm, obovate, white (pink). Fruit: (3)4--9(10) mm, base wedge-shaped, tip notched or not, glabrous; pedicel spreading to ascending, (3)5--15(20) mm, slender. Chromosomes: 2n=32.
Ecology: Disturbed areas; Elevation: < 2800 m. Bioregional Distribution: CA; Distribution Outside California: North America; native to Eurasia. Flowering Time: Jan--Oct
Jepson eFlora Author: Ihsan A. Al-Shehbaz
Index of California Plant Names (ICPN; linked via the Jepson Online Interchange)

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Botanical illustration including Capsella bursa-pastorisbotanical illustration including Capsella bursa-pastoris


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Citation for this treatment: Ihsan A. Al-Shehbaz 2012, Capsella bursa-pastoris, in Jepson Flora Project (eds.) Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/eflora_display.php?tid=17109, accessed on December 03, 2024.

Citation for the whole project: Jepson Flora Project (eds.) 2024, Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/, accessed on December 03, 2024.

Capsella bursa-pastoris
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©2006 Julie Kierstead Nelson
Capsella bursa-pastoris
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©2008 Keir Morse
Capsella bursa-pastoris
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©2006 Barry Rice
Capsella bursa-pastoris
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©2019 Neal Kramer
Capsella bursa-pastoris
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©2006 Barry Rice

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Geographic subdivisions for Capsella bursa-pastoris:
CA
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map of distribution 1

(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 occurrence).






 

Data provided by the participants of the  Consortium of California Herbaria.

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CCH collections by month Flowering-Fruiting Monthly Counts

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).