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, generally cushion- or mat-forming, occasionally scapose, hairs simple, forked, or many-branched. Leaf: basal generally rosetted; cauline entire or shallowly toothed, base generally not lobed, occasionally 0. Inflorescence: generally many-flowered, elongated or not; bracts generally 0. Flower: sepals bases equal; petals generally short-clawed, yellow or white (lavender or red). Fruit: silique or silicle, dehiscent, linear to lanceolate or ovate, occasionally ovoid or spheric, cylindric or flat parallel to septum, unsegmented; stigma entire. Seed: in 2 rows; wing generally 0.
Etymology: (Greek: acrid, describing taste of crucifer leaves)
eFlora Treatment Author: Ihsan A. Al-Shehbaz
Reference: Al-Shehbaz & Windham 2007 Harvard Pap Bot 12:409--419
Unabridged Reference: Beilstein & Windham 2003 Syst Bot 28:584--592; Hitchcock 1941 Univ Washington Publ Biol 11:1--132; Koch & Al-Shehbaz 2002 Ann Missouri Bot Gard 89:88--109; Rollins & Price 1988 Aliso 12:17--27; Schulz 1927 Pflanzenreich IV 105(Heft 89):1--396