[Greek a-, not or without, and phragma, septum, alluding to its lack in fruit of some species]

Ihsan A. Al-Shehbaz

Oreas Chamisso & Schlechtendal; Orobium Reichenbach; Staintoniella H. Hara

Plants not scapose; (sometimes rhizomatous, caudex thick, covered with persistent petiolar remains); glabrous or pubescent, trichomes simple or forked, (less than 0.1 mm). Stems erect or ascending, branched basally. Leaves basal and cauline; petiolate or sessile; basal rosulate, petiolate, blade margins entire; cauline petiolate or sessile, blade margins entire. Racemes (few- to several-flowered), bracteate throughout or basally. Fruiting pedicels [erect] ascending, divaricate, sometimes recurved, slender. Flowers: sepals (sometimes persistent), oblong; petals broadly obovate or spatulate, claw subequaling sepal, (apex rounded [obtuse]); stamens slightly tetradynamous; filaments dilated or not basally; anthers obtuse; nectar glands confluent, subtending bases of stamens. Fruits silicles or siliques, sessile or subsessile, oblong, elliptic, or lanceolate [ovate, linear]; valves each with obscure or distinct midvein, (smooth), glabrous; replum flattened basally; septum absent [complete and membranous]; style obsolete or distinct (to 2 mm); stigma capitate. Seeds plump, not winged, oblong or ovoid (on filiform funicles often longer than seeds); seed coat (minutely reticulate), not mucilaginous when wetted; cotyledons incumbent. x = 7.

Species 11 (1 in the flora): nw North America, Asia (Himalaya, Russian Far East).

SELECTED REFERENCES Al-Shehbaz, I. A. 2003. Aphragmus bouffordii, a new species from Tibet and a synopsis of Aphragmus (Brassicaceae). Harvard Pap. Bot. 8: 25-27. Ebel, A. L. 1998. Notes on genus Aphragmus Andrz. (Brassicaceae). Turczaninowia 1(4): 20-27.

Lower Taxon

• Aphragmus eschscholtzianus Andrzejowski ex de Candolle