15. Polyctenium Greene, Leafl. Bot. Observ. Crit. 2: 219. 1912.
[Greek polys, many, and ctenos, comb, alluding to leaves]
Ihsan A. Al-Shehbaz
Perennials; (cespitose); not scapose; pubescent at least basally, trichomes dendritic, mixed with fewer, 2-rayed and larger, simple ones. Stems erect to ascending, branched distally. Leaves cauline; petiolate or subsessile; blade (base not auriculate), not rosulate; margins pinnatifid. Racemes (corymbose, several-flowered), congested or considerably elongated in fruit. Fruiting pedicels divaricate-ascending, slender. Flowers: sepals (erect or slightly ascending), oblong-ovate; petals white or purplish, obovate to oblanceolate, (longer than sepals, claw undifferentiated from blade, apex obtuse); stamens slightly tetradynamous; filaments not dilated basally; anthers ovate, (apex obtuse); nectar glands confluent, subtending bases of stamens. Fruits (siliques or silicles), sessile, usually linear to oblong, rarely ovate-oblong, not torulose, slightly to strongly angustiseptate; valves each not veined, glabrous or, rarely, sparsely puberulent; replum rounded; septum complete; ovules 30-46 per ovary; stigma capitate, entire. Seeds uniseriate, plump, not winged, oblong; seed coat not mucilaginous when wetted; cotyledons incumbent.
Species 1: nw United States.
Selected reference Rollins, R. C. 1938. Smelowskia and Polyctenium. Rhodora 40: 294-305.
