Physaria pruinosa

(Greene) O’Kane & Al-Shehbaz

Novon 12: 327. 2002.

Common names: Frosty or Pagosa bladderpod
Basionym: Lesquerella pruinosa Greene Pittonia 4: 307. 1901
Treatment appears in FNA Volume 7. Treatment on page 658. Mentioned on page 620.

Perennials; caudex simple or branched, (covered with persistent leaf bases); densely pubescent, trichomes (sessile or subsessile), 4–7-rayed, rays furcate or bifurcate, (tuberculate throughout). Stems simple or several from base, decumbent or erect, (unbranched), to 2 dm. Basal leaves: (petiole sharply differentiated from blade, slender); blade suborbicular or obovate to rhombic, 4–8 cm, (base abruptly narrowed to petiole), margins entire, sinuate, or shallowly dentate, (abaxial surface densely pubescent, adaxial lightly pubescent). Cauline leaves: (proximal petiolate, distal sessile); blade obovate to rhombic, 0.8–2.3 cm, margins entire or shallowly toothed. Racemes dense, (somewhat elongated in fruit). Fruiting pedicels (horizontal to ascending, sigmoid or slightly curved), 8–11 mm, (stout). Flowers: sepals elliptic or oblong, ca. 6 mm, (lateral pair not saccate or subsaccate, cucullate, median pair thickened apically, cucullate); petals spatulate, ca. 9 mm, (claw expanded at base). Fruits (sessile or substipitate, often becoming copper-red in age), subglobose or ellipsoid, inflated, 6–9 mm, (firm, glossy); valves (not retaining seeds after dehiscence), glabrous throughout; replum as wide as or wider than fruit; ovules 4–8(–12) per ovary; style 3.5–7 mm. Seeds somewhat flattened.


Phenology: Flowering May–Jun(-Aug).
Habitat: Mancos slate or shale, meadows, gentle slopes, edges of ponderosa pine stands
Elevation: 2100-2600 m

Discussion

Of conservation concern.

The one New Mexico population is near the border with Colorado, in Rio Arriba County.

Selected References

None.

Lower Taxa

None.
... more about "Physaria pruinosa"
Steve L. O’Kane Jr. +
(Greene) O’Kane & Al-Shehbaz +
Lesquerella pruinosa +
Frosty or Pagosa bladderpod +
Colo. +  and N.Mex. +
2100-2600 m +
Mancos slate or shale, meadows, gentle slopes, edges of ponderosa pine stands +
Flowering May–Jun(-Aug). +
Coulterina +  and Lesquerella +
Physaria pruinosa +
Physaria +
species +