79. Synthlipsis A. Gray, Mem. Amer. Acad. Arts, n. s. 4: 116. 1849.
[Greek synthlipsis, compression, alluding to flattened fruits]
Ihsan A. Al-Shehbaz
Annuals, biennials, or perennials; (short-lived, sometimes cespitose); not scapose; pubescent throughout, trichomes dendritic, base of plant sometimes mixed with fewer, simple or forked, stalked ones. Stems ascending to decumbent, unbranched or branched distally. Leaves basal and cauline; petiolate or sessile; basal rosulate, petiolate, blade margins usually sinuately lobed to dentate, rarely repand; cauline petiolate or sessile, blade similar to basal. Racemes (corymbose, several-flowered), slightly or considerably elongated in fruit. Fruiting pedicels divaricate or divaricate-ascending, slender. Flowers: sepals spreading, narrowly oblong, (equal), lateral pair not saccate basally; petals white to violet [purple], broadly obovate, (much longer than sepals), claw differentiated from blade, (much shorter, apex rounded); stamens tetradynamous; filaments not dilated basally, (somewhat spreading); anthers linear [narrowly oblong]; nectar glands confluent, subtending bases of stamens. Fruits silicles, sessile, broadly oblong [broadly elliptic], smooth, angustiseptate; valves carinate; replum rounded; septum complete; ovules 10-50 per ovary; style distinct; stigma broadly capitate, entire. Seeds ± biseriate, flattened, not winged, narrowly margined, broadly ovate; seed coat (nearly smooth), copiously mucilaginous when wetted; cotyledons accumbent. x = 10.
Species 2 (1 in the flora): Texas, n Mexico.
SELECTED REFERENCE Rollins, R. C. 1959. The genus Synthlipsis (Cruciferae). Rhodora 61: 253-264.
