74. Dithyrea Harvey, London J. Bot. 4: 77, plate 5. 1845.
Spectacle-pod [Greek di-, two or double, and thyreos, shield, alluding to spectacle-shaped fruits]
Ihsan A. Al-Shehbaz
Annuals or perennials; (rhizomatous); not scapose; densely pubescent, trichomes stalked, stellate to subdendritic, sometimes as simple clavate papillae on fruits. Stems erect or decumbent, branched basally and distally. Leaves basal and cauline; petiolate or subsessile; basal rosulate, petiolate, blade margins dentate, sometimes repand, rarely pinnatifid; cauline petiolate, sessile, or subsessile, blade margins entire, dentate, or repand. Racemes (densely corymbose), considerably elongated or not elongated in fruit. Fruiting pedicels divaricate, stout, (straight, with 2 well-developed glands basally). Flowers: sepals erect, linear or oblong-linear, (forming tube, connivent), lateral pair saccate basally; petals (erect), white, lavender, or purplish, lingulate, (longer than sepals), claw undifferentiated from blade; stamens (erect), tetradynamous; filaments not dilated basally, (filiform); anthers narrowly linear or sagittate; nectar glands: lateral annular, median confluent with lateral; (gynophore to 0.5 mm). Fruits silicles, sessile or shortly stipitate, didymous, not winged, strongly angustiseptate; valves 1-seeded, ovate, suborbicular, or slightly broader than long, keeled, enclosing seeds when falling off, indurated around margin, (rim raised), pubescent (with branched or clavate, simple papillae); replum concealed by valve margin; septum complete; ovules 2 per ovary; style distinct, (pubescent); stigma capitate, entire. Seeds aseriate, flattened, not winged, oblong; seed coat (smooth), not mucilaginous when wetted; cotyledons accumbent. x = 10.
Species 2 (2 in the flora): sw United States, nw Mexico.
SELECTED REFERENCE Rollins, R. C. 1979. Dithyrea and a related genus (Cruciferae). Publ. Bussey Inst. Harvard Univ. 1979: 3-32.