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: PRINCE'S PLUME
Habit: [Annual] perennial herb, subshrub; hairs 0 or simple, glaucous. Leaf: basal, proximal-most cauline petioled, simple to entire or 1(2)-pinnately lobed; middle, distal cauline petioled to sessile, base occasionally lobed or sagittate. Inflorescence: dense, elongated. Flower: sepals oblong to linear, spreading to reflexed, base not sac-like; petals yellow to white, long-clawed; filaments equal; anthers linear, coiled. Fruit: silique, dehiscent, linear, flat parallel to septum or cylindric, unsegmented; stalk above receptacle [0.4]0.6--2.8 cm; style 0 or short, stigma entire. Seed: 10--70, in 1 row, oblong, wingless.
Etymology: (E.S. Stanley, English ornithologist, 1775--1851) Toxicity: Concentrates selenium to TOXIC levels, rarely eaten.
eFlora Treatment Author: Ihsan A. Al-Shehbaz