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: JEWELFLOWER
Habit: Annual to perennial herb, generally +- glaucous; hairs simple or 0. Leaf: basal rosetted or not, petioled, entire or dentate to pinnately lobed or divided; cauline sessile, occasionally petioled, base generally lobed or clasping. Inflorescence: open, elongated, bracts 0 or bracted below proximal 1--2 flowers, sometimes with sterile flower cluster. Flower: radial or bilateral; calyx urn- or occasionally bell-shaped, sepals erect, base +- sac-like, keeled or not; petal blade narrower to wider than proximal 1/2, generally channeled, margins +- crinkled or not; stamens in 3 pairs of unequal length, or 4 long and 2 short, longest filaments fused or free. Fruit: silique, dehiscent, linear, flat parallel to septum, unsegmented; stigma entire or 2-lobed. Seed: 10--120, in 1 row, generally winged.
Etymology: (Greek: twisted flower, from wavy-margined petals)
eFlora Treatment Author: Robert E. Preston & Ihsan A. Al-Shehbaz
Reference: Mayer & Beseda 2010 Ann Missouri Bot Gard 97:106--116; Preston et al. 2019 Madroño 66:24--29; Jensen 2020 Madroño 67:19--34; Preston 2023 Phytoneuron 2023-22:1--10