Family: Brassicaceae,
Mustard
Genus: Chorispora
Description
General: annual, 10-50 cm tall, with stalked glands and
often sparsely stiff- to long-soft-hairy. The stem usually with
several basal, often partially creeping branches.
 Leaves: basal and alternate on stem, elliptic-oblong to
lanceolate or oblanceolate, all but the uppermost stalked,
the blade 3-8 cm long, with coarse, shallow, wavy teeth.
The leaves much reduced upwards.
 Flowers: several in much elongate clusters, the lower
flowers from the axils of reduced leaves. Flower stalks
spreading to somewhat ascending, stout, 2-4 mm long.
Calyx narrowly tubular, 6-8 mm long, the 2 sepals on the
sides somewhat pouched at the base. The 4 petals
magenta, the narrow claw slightly exceeding the sepals,
the spreading, narrowly oblong blades about 5 mm long.
Flowering time: April-June.
 Fruits: pods, 3.5--4.5 cm long, spreading and curved
upward, cylindrical, with many small constrictions between
the many seeds, the valves strongly 1-nerved. The upper
portion of the pod sterile and forming a long, tapering, sharp
beak 7-20 mm long. Style lacking. Seeds in 1 row.
Distribution
Dry meadows, in many parts of MT. A weedy Eurasian
plant widely established in much of the more arid part of
the Pacific Northwest.
Edible plant: see below. |
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