Cochlearia L.

Herbs, annual, biennial or perennial with slender taproot, erect or prostrate, subglabrous or with simple hairs; stems simple, leafy, branched from base. Leaves simple or pinnatifid. Racemes short, corymbose, bracteate or not; flowers small, greenish white or yellow. Sepals erecto-patent or spreading. Petals obovate-oblong or oblanceolate, shortly clawed. Stamens 6; filaments linear. Fruit a laterally compressed silicula, ovoid-oblong or ellipsoid, somewhat inflated, bilocular, dehiscent; valves convex, turgid, not winged. Seeds biseriate, few to many, subcompressed, verrucose or papillose.

Chiefly distributed in the northern hemisphere; about 25 species, 2 in India.

KEY TO THE SPECIES

1a. Leaves lanceolate, pinnatifid; fruits globose

1. Cochlearia cochlearioides

b. Leaves ovate, not pinnatifid; fruits ellipsoid

2. Cochlearia himalaica

List of Lower Taxa