Earleaf bladderpod

Vesicaria auriculata Engelmann & A. Gray, Boston J. Nat. Hist. 5: 240. 1845; Alyssum auriculatum (Engelmann & A. Gray) Kuntze; Lesquerella auriculata (Engelmann & A. Gray) S. Watson

Annuals; hirsute or glabrous, trichomes relatively long, simple, with smaller, branched ones. Stems erect or decumbent at base, (stout), 0.5-2 dm, (hirsute proximally, trichomes simple). Basal leaves: blade 2-5 cm × 8-15 mm, margins lyrate to sinuate-dentate or entire, (apex obtuse to subacute), surfaces often pubescent (trichomes branched, smaller), or hirsute on much of adaxial surface, margins, and midrib (trichomes simple). Cauline leaves (overlapping); blade oblong to sagittate, 1-4 cm × 3-10 mm, base auriculate, margins entire or dentate. Fruiting pedicels divaricate-ascending to divergent (ca. 45º), slightly curved, 7-15 mm, hirsute (trichomes spreading, simple and branched). Flowers: sepals 4-6 × 1.5-2 mm, hirsute (trichomes spreading, simple and branched); petals yellow, 7-10 × 4-5 mm, (apex rounded or slightly emarginate); filaments abruptly dilated basally. Fruits subsessile, globose or subglobose, (longer than broad), 4-6(-8) × 4-6 mm; valves glabrous; replum not flattened; septum complete, (translucent); ovules (8-) 12-16(-20) per ovary; style 1.5-2 mm, glabrous; stigma expanded. Seeds suborbicular, ca. 2 mm. 2n = 16.

Flowering Mar-May. Bluffs, prairies, pastures, limestone outcrops, disturbed soils of banks and roadsides; Kans., Okla., Tex.