Brassicaceae

• Authority

  Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

• Family

  Brassicaceae

• Scientific Name

  Brassicaceae

• Description

  Family Description - Fls typically borne in terminal, elongating, mostly bractless racemes (these occasionally with a few long branches), or rarely terminal and solitary on a scape, hypogynous, perfect, regular or nearly so, only seldom (as in Lunaria) with an evident gynophore; sep 4; pet 4, diagonal to the sep, commonly with an elongate claw and an abruptly spreading blade, collectively forming a cross, or seldom wanting; androecium tetradynamous, with 6 stamens, the 2 outer shorter than the 4 inner, or seldom the stamens fewer than 6; ovary bicarpellate, nearly always divided into 2 locules by a thin, unvasculated septum connecting the 2 parietal placentas, the placental frame forming a persistent replum; ovules (1–) several or many on each placenta, in 2 rows separated by the partition; style solitary, often short (or the stigma sessile); fr dry and usually dehiscent, generally a silique (elongate) or a silicle (short), the valves falling away from the persistent replum at maturity, or seldom the fr indehiscent and sometimes transversely jointed; endosperm very scanty or none; plants producing mustard-oils; herbs (all ours) or rarely shrubs, with alternate (rarely opposite), simple to often pinnately ± dissected lvs, only seldom with definite lfls. (Cruciferae) The following strictly artificial key avoids the more technical characters of the staminal glands, stigma, and embryo. 340/3350, mostly temp reg.

• Common Names

  The mustard family