羽裂叶荠属 yu lie ye ji shu

Herbs annual or biennial. Trichomes finely dendritic, rarely also simple and stalked forked at stem base. Stems erect or ascending, sometimes prostrate, terete. Basal leaves petiolate, not rosulate, simple, 2-pinnatisect. Cauline leaves petiolate or uppermost subsessile, 1- or 2-pinnatisect, rarely pinnatifid. Racemes ebracteate, bracteate throughout, or only basally bracteate. Fruiting pedicels erect, ascending, or divaricate. Sepals oblong or ovate-oblong, ascending, base of lateral pair not saccate. Petals yellow, shorter or much longer than sepals; blade obovate or spatulate, apex rounded; claw slightly to strongly differentiated from blade, shorter than to as long as sepals. Stamens 6, slightly tetradynamous; filaments not dilated at base; anthers ovate or oblong, obtuse at apex. Nectar glands confluent and subtending bases of all stamens; median glands present; lateral glands semiannular. Ovules 4-16 per ovary. Fruit dehiscent siliques or silicles, linear, oblong, obovoid, or ellipsoid, terete or slightly 4-angled, sessile or shortly stipitate; valves with an obscure to prominent midvein, glabrous, smooth or subtorulose; replum rounded; septum complete or basally perforated, membranous; style obsolete or short and less than 1 mm; stigma capitate, entire. Seeds uniseriate, wingless, oblong, plump; seed coat minutely reticulate, mucilaginous when wetted; cotyledons incumbent.

Four species: C Asia; two species in China.

Lower Taxa

• Sophiopsis annua (Ruprecht) O. E. Schulz
• Sophiopsis sisymbrioides (Regel & Herder) O. E. Schulz