e-Key v3 - *Arabidopsis
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Interactive keys to the identification of seed plants of southern Africa using keys based on plant morphology.

Brassicaceae - Sisymbrieae - *Arabidopsis Heynh.

Description :

  • Slender, annual or biennial herbs, with simple and branched hairs; up to 300 mm tall
  • Leaves simple, entire or dentate
  • Inflorescences simple, terminal, sometimes bracteate racemes
  • Sepals erect, not or hardly saccate at base
  • Petals clawed, mostly white
  • Stamens 6 or 4; filaments without appendages
  • Nectaries united into a ring
  • Ovary narrowly cylindrical; ovules many; stigma almost sessile
  • Fruit a linear siliqua; valves thin, rounded on back, 1-nerved
  • Seeds ellipsoid, not mucilaginous, mostly in 1 row; cotyledons incumbent
  • x = 2 (polyploidy)

Nomenclature:

  • *Arabidopsis Heynh.
    • Heynhold: 538 (1842) name conserved
    • Schulz: 640 (1936)
    • Phillips: 352 (1951)
    • Ball: 267 (1964)
    • Marais: 117 (1970)
    • Jonsell: 43 (1982)
    • O'Kane & Al-Shehbaz: 323 (1997)
  • Cardaminopsis (C.A.Mey.) Hayek
    • Hayek: 477 (1908)

Distribution & Notes:

  • Global : Species 13, Asia, Europe and North America
  • Southern Africa : Species 1: * Arabidopsis thaliana (L.) Heynh., introduced to Northern, Western and Eastern Cape

References:

  • BALL, P.W. 1964. Cruciferae . Alyssum [and other genera]. Flora europaea 1
  • HAYEK, A. 1908. Flora von Steiermark 1. Gebrüder Borntraeger, Berlin
  • HEYNHOLD, G. 1842. In F. Holl & G. Heynhold, Flora von Sachsen 1. J. Naumann, Dresden
  • JONSELL, B. 1982. Cruciferae . Flora of tropical East Africa , Cruciferae
  • MARAIS, W. 1970. Cruciferae . Flora of southern Africa 13
  • O'KANE, S.L. & AL-SHEHBAZ, I.A. 1997. A synopsis of Arabidopsis ( Brassicaceae ). Novon 7
  • PHILLIPS, E.P. 1951. The genera of South African flowering plants, edn 2. Memoirs of the Botanical Survey of South Africa No. 25
  • SCHULZ, O.E. 1936. Cruciferae . Die natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien II,17b