Smelowskia C.A. Mey. in Ledeb., Fl. Alt. 3: 165. 1831. Benth. & Hook. f., l.c. 79; Schulz in Engler, l.c. 352; in Engl. & Prantl, l.c. 655: Busch in Kom., l.c. 89; Drury & Rollins in Rhodora 54: 85-119. 1952; Jafri l.c. 117; Rech. f., l.c. 341; Botsch. in Nov. Syst. Leningrad, 140. 1968.
Chrysanthemopsi Rech. f.
Perennial, somewhat caespitose herbs, ascending to erect, branched mostly from the base, often densely hairy with simple and branched hairs; rootstock-often thick and covered with withered leaf bases. Leaves pinnatisect, rarely subentire or entire; lower rosulate, often dense, petiolate; upper few, distant, shortly stalked to subsessile; lobes narrowly oblong to linear. Racemes corymbose above, often lax below and bracteate. Flowers small to mediocre, whitish or pinkish. sometimes turning yellowish when dried; pedicels filiform, spreading or ascending, usually short. Sepals not saccate at base. Petals about twice as long as the sepals, suborbicular, narrowed below. Stamens 6, filaments not appendaged; anthers oblong, obtuse. Lateral nectar glands annular or almost so, narrowed or slightly opened towards the inner side; middle glands narrowly torose, often thickened in the middle, joining the laterals. Ovary ellipsoid, subcylindrical, usually 6-10-ovuled; style very short with depressed, capitate, subretuse stigma. Siliculae ellipsoid, subterete, bilocular, dehiscent; valves somewhat boat-shaped or convex, glabrous, obscurely veined; septum membranous, not or obscurely 1-veined, as broad as the siliculae; seeds few, usually uniseriate, oblong-ellipsoid, not mucilaginous when wet; radicle incumbent.
About 7 species in C. Asia and N. America; only 1 in our area.
