Thysanocarpus is a small genus of plants in the family Brassicaceae known generally as fringepods or lacepods. These are small, erect annual herbs. The flat fruit capsule is generally round or oval-shaped with a wing that goes all the way around the pod, giving it a fringed look. The fruits hang from most of the length of the stem. The plants are native to the western United States.
Descurainia pinnata is a species of flowering plant in the family Brassicaceae known by the common name western tansymustard. It is native to North America, where it is widespread and found in varied habitats. It is especially successful in deserts. It is a hardy plant which easily becomes weedy, and can spring up in disturbed, barren sites with bad soil. This is a hairy, heavily branched, mustardlike annual which is quite variable in appearance. There are several subspecies which vary from each other and individuals within a subspecies may look different depending on the climate they endure. This may be a clumping thicket or a tall, erect mustard. It generally does not exceed 70 centimeters in height. It has highly lobed or divided leaves with pointed, toothed lobes or leaflets. At the tips of the stem branches are tiny yellow flowers. The fruit is a silique one half to two centimeters long upon a threadlike pedicel. This plant reproduces only from seed. This tansymustard is toxic to grazing animals in large quantities due to nitrates and thiocyanates; however, it is nutritious in smaller amounts. The flowers are attractive to butterflies. The seeds are said to taste somewhat like black mustard and were utilized as food by Native American peoples such as the Navajo.
Boechera stricta is a species of flowering plant in the mustard family known by the common name Drummond's rockcress. It is native to much of North America, including most of Canada, and the western and northeastern United States.
Microseris douglasii is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae known by the common name Douglas' silverpuffs. It is native to western North America from Oregon and California to Baja California. It grows in several types of habitat, including grassland and vernal pools, and on soils containing clay and serpentine.
Rorippa palustris, marsh yellow-cress, bog yellow-cress or common yellow-cress, is a species of flowering plant in the family Brassicaceae. It is widespread and native to parts of Africa, and much of Asia, Europe and Eurasia, North America and the Caribbean. It can also be found in other parts of the world as an introduced species and a common weed, for example, in Australia and South America. It is an adaptable plant which grows in many types of damp, wet, and aquatic habitat. It may be an annual, biennial, or perennial plant, and is variable in appearance as well.
Pyrrocoma racemosa is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae known by the common name clustered goldenweed. It is native to the western United States, where it grows in many types of habitat. It is quite variable in morphology, and there are several varieties which are sometimes hard to tell apart. In general, it is a perennial herb usually producing two or more mostly erect stems reaching maximum heights between 15 and 90 centimeters. The stems are reddish or brownish in color, leafy or not, and hairless to quite woolly. The longest leaves are located in tufts around the base of the stems. They are lance-shaped to oval, smooth-edged, wavy, or deeply spine-toothed, and may exceed 30 centimeters in length. Basal leaves are borne on woolly petioles. Leaves located higher on the stem lack petioles and may clasp the stem at their bases. The inflorescence is a cluster of several flower heads lined with phyllaries which may be over a centimeter long and are hairy to hairless in texture. Each head contains many yellow disc florets and a fringe of several yellow ray florets. The fruit is an achene which may be over a centimeter long including its pappus.
Rorippa curvipes is a species of flowering plant in the family Brassicaceae known by the common name bluntleaf yellowcress. It is native to much of western North America from Alaska to Mexico to the Mississippi River, where it can be found in various types of moist and wet habitat, including lakeshores and riverbanks, meadows, roadsides, mudflats, and irrigation ditches. It is an annual or perennial herb, producing several stems growing prostrate along the ground or somewhat upright, measuring 10 centimeters to around half a meter in maximum length. The leaves are long and narrow, smooth edged or lobed, the lobes sometimes cut all the way to the midrib or separated to form leaflets. Lower leaves are borne on petioles; upper leaves have bases that clasp the stem. The mustardlike flowers have very small yellow petals. The fruit is a plump, hairless silique containing many minute seeds.
Rorippa curvisiliqua is a species of flowering plant in the family Brassicaceae known by the common name curvepod yellowcress.
Rumex pulcher is a species of flowering plant in the knotweed family known by the common name fiddle dock. It is native to Eurasia and North Africa and it can be found elsewhere, including parts of North America, as an introduced species and a roadside weed. Europe. It is quite variable in appearance, and some authorities divide it into several subspecies that are more or less distinguishable. In general, it is a perennial herb producing a slender, erect stem from a thick taproot, approaching 70 centimeters in maximum height. The top of the plant may bend, especially as the fruit develops. The leaves are up to 10 or 15 centimeters long and variable in shape, though often oblong with a narrow middle in the rough shape of a fiddle. The inflorescence is made up of many branches, each an interrupted series of clusters of flowers with up to 20 in each cluster, each flower hanging from a pedicel. The flower has usually six tepals, the inner three of which are edged with teeth and have tubercles at their centers.
Solanum dimidiatum is a species of plant in the family Solanaceae known by the common names western horsenettle, Torrey's nightshade, and robust horsenettle. It is native to the central United States, where it grows in many types of habitat, including disturbed areas. In California it is known as an introduced species and a noxious weed. It is a rhizomatous perennial herb producing an erect stem up to 80 centimeters tall. It is covered in yellow prickles and branched hairs. The leaves may be up to 15 centimeters long, their edges wavy to lobed and sometimes toothed. The inflorescence is a branching array of several flowers. Each flower has a bell-shaped corolla measuring 3 to 5 centimeters wide. It is lavender to purple, or white. The five large, yellow anthers are about a centimeter long. The fruit is a spherical yellow berry up to 3 centimeters wide.
Solanum parishii is a species of nightshade known by the common name Parish's nightshade. It is native to western North America from Oregon to Baja California, where it grows in many types of habitat, including maritime and inland chaparral, woodlands, and forests. It is a perennial herb or subshrub producing a branching, ribbed or ridged stem up to about a meter in maximum height. The lance-shaped to nearly oval leaves are up to 7 centimeters long and smooth-edged or somewhat wavy. The inflorescence is an umbel-shaped array of several flowers, each borne on a short pedicel. The flower corolla is around 2 centimeters wide when fully open and is usually purple, but sometimes white. At the center are yellow anthers. The fruit is a berry roughly a centimeter wide.
Streptanthus longirostris is a species of flowering plant in the family Brassicaceae, which is known by the common name longbeak streptanthella, or simply streptanthella. It is native to western North America, where it occurs throughout the western United States and the northwestern states of Mexico. It grows in many types of habitat, including deserts, sagebrush, foothill woodlands, sandy flats, chaparral, and scrubby canyons.
Streptanthus diversifolius is a species of flowering plant in the mustard family known by the common name variableleaf jewelflower, or varied-leaved jewelflower. It is endemic to California, where it is limited to the Sierra Nevada foothills. It is a resident of woodlands and other foothill habitat. It is an annual herb producing a hairless, waxy stem up to a meter tall. The basal leaves are variable in shape and are often divided into narrow, threadlike segments. Leaves higher on the stem are also variable, having round to lance-shaped blades which clasp the stem at their bases. Flowers occur at intervals along the upper stem, with one or two leaflike bracts at the base of the raceme. Each flower has an urn-shaped calyx of keeled sepals about half a centimeter long and white, yellowish, or purple in color, sometimes with white edging. White, purple-veined petals emerge from the tip. The fruit is a thin, flat, curving silique which may be 8 or 9 centimeters in length.
Streptanthus glandulosus is a species of flowering plant in the mustard family known by the common name bristly jewelflower. It is native to California and southwestern Oregon, where it grows in many types of habitat, including grassland, chaparral, and woodlands. Genetic and other analyses indicate that it is a species complex with ten subspecies which evolved as populations were isolated from each other. The complex includes subspecies previously considered separate species, such as the rare Tiburon jewelflower endemic to the San Francisco Bay Area. Plants in the complex are variable. In general they are annual herbs growing 10 centimeters to over a meter in height. They may be hairless hairy to bristly. The ephemeral basal leaves have blades borne on winged petioles. Leaves higher on the stem are linear to lance-shaped and clasp the stem at their bases. Flowers occur at intervals along the upper stem. Each flower has an urn-shaped calyx of sepals one-half to over one centimeter long which can be almost any color from white to yellowish to pink or purple to nearly black. Purple, white, or purple-veined white petals emerge from the tip. The fruit is a straight or curving silique up to 11 centimeters long.
Streptanthus oliganthus is an uncommon species of flowering plant in the mustard family known by the common name Masonic Mountain jewelflower. It is native to western Nevada and eastern California, where it grows in the rocky hills east of the central Sierra Nevada. Its habitat includes forest, woodland, sagebrush, and mountain talus. It is a rhizomatous perennial herb producing a hairless, waxy, usually unbranched stem up to about 40 or 50 centimeters in maximum height. The basal leaves have lance-shaped, smooth-edged blades up to 10 centimeters long borne on fuzzy to rough-haired petioles. Leaves higher on the stem have shorter blades which may clasp the stem at their bases. Flowers occur at intervals along the upper stem. Each has a bell-shaped calyx of purple sepals no more than a centimeter long. The petals emerging from the tip are reddish purple or purple-tipped. The fruit is a smooth, flat, straight or slightly curved silique up to 8 to 10 centimeters long.
Streptanthus tortuosus is a biennial or short lived perennial plant in the mustard family (Brassicaceae) known by the common names shieldplant, shieldleaf, and mountain jewelflower.
Thysanocarpus conchuliferus is a rare species of flowering plant in the mustard family known by the common name Santa Cruz Island fringepod. It is endemic to Santa Cruz Island, one of the Channel Islands of California, where has been recently observed at only one location; some years it is totally absent.
Thysanocarpus laciniatus is a species of flowering plant in the family Brassicaceae known by the common name mountain fringepod. It is native to California and Baja California, where it grows in many types of habitat. It is a common plant in much of its range. It is an annual herb producing a slender, branching or unbranched stem 10 to 60 centimeters tall. It is somewhat waxy in texture and generally lacks hairs. The leaves are linear to lance-shaped and smooth-edged or toothed. They measure up to 4 centimeters in length. The inflorescence is a raceme of small whitish or purplish flowers. The fruit is a flattened, rounded or oval disclike capsule with a thin wing around the edge.
Thysanocarpus radians is a species of flowering plant in the family Brassicaceae known by the common name ribbed fringepod. It is native to northern and central California and Oregon, where it grows in moist meadows, fields, hillsides, and other habitat. It is an annual herb growing up to 50 or 60 centimeters tall. The leaves are wavy-edged or lobed, the basal ones up to 5 centimeters long and ephemeral, and the upper ones with bases clasping the stem. The inflorescence is a long, open raceme of small whitish or purplish flowers. The fruit is a flattened, rounded, disclike capsule which hangs from its pedicel. It measures up to a centimeter long and is hairless to quite hairy in texture. The flat wing lining the edge of the disc is ribbed with rays like the spokes of a wheel, a characteristic making it easily distinguished from other Thysanocarpus when it is in fruit.
Tropidocarpum gracile is a species of flowering plant in the family Brassicaceae known by the common name dobie pod. It is native to California and Baja California, where it can be found in many types of habitat from coastal canyons to inland mountains and deserts in chaparral, scrub, woodlands, beaches, valleys, and washes. It is an annual herb producing a decumbent to erect, spreading, branching stem 10 to 50 centimeters in length. It is coated in short and long rough hairs. The basal leaves are up to 10 to 15 centimeters long and are divided into elongated lobes along the edges; leaves higher on the stem are shorter and sometimes less divided. The inflorescence is an open raceme of mustardlike flowers with four petals each about 4 millimeters long. The petals are yellow and sometimes purple-tinged. The fruit is a narrow silique several centimeters in length containing tiny brown seeds.
