Capsella Medikus, nom. cons.

Herbs, annual or biennial, glabrous or with simple or branched and often stellate hairs on stems and leaves; stems mostly erect, simple or branched. Basal leaves mostly rosulate, entire or lobed; cauline leaves subentire, sessile, amplexicaul and sagittate at base. Inflorescence racemose; pedicels slender. Sepals erect, not saccate, equal at base. Petals white, pink or yellowish, obovate, rounded or truncate at base. Stamens free; filaments linear, edentate. Fruit an angusti-septate silicula, obcordate-triangular, laterally compressed; valves boat-shaped, keeled, reticulately veined; septum narrow, membranous; style short; stigma minute, capitate. Seeds biseriate, many in each locule, ellipsoid; cotyledons incumbent.

Temperate regions of both hemispheres; about 5 species, 1 in India.

Literature. ALMQUIST, E. (1907-1923) Studies uber die Capsella bursa-pastoris (L.) Medikus. Acta Hort. Berg. 4 (6): 3 - 91. 1907; ibid. 7 (2): 41 - 95.1923.

List of Lower Taxa