Sea-cabbage [Greek krambe, cabbage]

Suzanne I. Warwick

Perennials [annuals, subshrubs]; not scapose; (glaucous), usually glabrous. Stems erect, branched distally. Leaves basal and cauline; petiolate; basal rosulate, blade (base not auriculate), margins sinuate-dentate to shallowly lobed, or subpinnatifid and coarsely dentate, [lyrate-pinnatipartite, pinnatisect, less frequently undivided]; cauline blade margins sinuate-dentate to lobed, less divided than basal. Racemes (corymbose, several-flowered, often in panicles), considerably elongated in fruit. Fruiting pedicels suberect to divaricate-ascending, [erect, divaricate], stout [slender]. Flowers: sepals spreading to ascending, ovate [oblong], lateral pair not saccate basally; petals white, cream, or yellow, obovate or oblong, claw differentiated from blade, (much shorter than sepal); stamens tetradynamous; filaments not dilated basally, (lateral filiform, median (inner) winged and/or toothed, rarely filiform and not toothed); anthers ovate or oblong, (apex obtuse); gynophore absent; nectar glands (4), distinct, median glands present. Fruits silicles, nutlike, indehiscent, segments 2, smooth, terete or 4-angled; (proximal segment stalklike, seedless, much shorter than terminal; terminal segment caducous, 1 (or 2)-seeded, subglobose to ovoid [globose], corky, rugose, or reticulate); replum and septum obsolete; ovules 2 per ovary; (style 0(-1) mm); stigma capitate, entire. Seeds aseriate, plump, not winged, globose, ellipsoid, or ovoid [oblong], (pendulous on basal funicle); seed coat (smooth), not mucilaginous when wetted; cotyledons conduplicate. x = 15.

Species 35 (1 in the flora): introduced, Oregon; c Europe to w Asia (Mediterranean region), n Africa, Atlantic Islands (Canary Islands).

Lower Taxon

• Crambe maritima Linnaeus