Chorispora R. Br. ex DC., nom cons.

Herbs, annual or perennial. Stems erect, branched mostly from base; hairs branched or unbranched, glandular or sometimes egIandular. Leaves deeply pinnatifid to entire; basal leaves rosulate, petiolate; upper subsessile to sessile. Racemes lax; flowers showy. Sepals erect, the laterals slightly saccate at base. Petals spathulate, long-clawed, emarginate at apex, about twice as long as sepals, purple. Stamens 6. Ovary linear, bilocular; style long; stigma short, bilobed. Fruit an indehiscent articulated sillqua, linear, torulose or moniliform, breaking into 2-seeded segments; style at least half as long as fruit, more or less beaked. Seeds few to many, 1 in eaeh locule, cotyledons accumbent.

Chiefly distributed in Eastern mediterranean region and C. Asia; about 10 spedes, 5 in India.

KEY TO THE SPECIES

1a. Annual or biennial herbs

2

b. Perennial herbs

3

2a. Flowers pink, lilac or violet; beak as long as the body of siliqua, thickened

5. Chorispora tenella

b. Flowers yellow; beak half or less than half the lenth of the body of siliqua, thin

4. Chorispora sibirica

3a. Flowers yellow; siliqua ca 10 mm long

2. Chorispora macropoda

b. Flowers pink or violet; siliqua 15 - 30 mm long

4

4a. Flowering stem short or absent; pedicels up to 30 mm long in fruit; petals 14 - 16 mm long

1. Chorispora bungeana

b. Flowering stem conspicuously present; pedicels up to 15 mm long in fruit; petals 6 - 10 mm

3. Chorispora sabulosa

List of Lower Taxa