14. Phoenicaulis Nuttall in J. Torrey and A. Gray, Fl. N. Amer. 1: 89. 1838.
[Greek phoenix, date palm, and kaulos, stem, alluding to petiolar remains]
Ihsan A. Al-Shehbaz
Perennials; (caudex well-developed, woody, covered with persistent petiolar remains); not scapose; glabrous or pubescent, trichomes finely dendritic. Stems erect, usually unbranched, rarely branched distally. Leaves basal and cauline; petiolate or sessile; basal (persistent), rosulate, long-petiolate, blade margins entire; cauline sessile, blade (base auriculate), margins entire. Racemes (corymbose, several-flowered), considerably elongated in fruit. Fruiting pedicels divaricate, slender. Flowers: sepals (erect), oblong, (lateral pair saccate basally); petals purple or lavender, spatulate to oblanceolate, (longer than sepals, apex obtuse); stamens tetradynamous; filaments not dilated basally; anthers oblong, (apex obtuse); nectar glands confluent, lateral annular. Fruits sessile or stipitate, lanceolate to linear, not torulose, latiseptate; valves each with prominent midvein (lateral veins often conspicuous), glabrous; replum rounded; septum complete, (opaque); ovules (6-)8-16(-18) per ovary; stigma capitate. Seeds uniseriate, slightly flattened, not winged, oblong to broadly ovate; seed coat (smooth), not mucilaginous when wetted; cotyledons accumbent. x = 7.
Species 1: w United States.
