Chorispermum R. Br.
Annual or perennial herbs, glabrous or hairy with eglandular or glandular simple hairs, erect or suberect to spreading, branched mostly from the base. Leaves deeply pinnatifid to entire; basal often rosulate,± petiolate, upper subsessile or sessile. Racemes lax in fruit, sometime reduced with 1-flowered scapes, ebracteate. Flowers often showy, mediocre or large, purple, pink, lilac or yellow, rarely whitish; pedicel short or long in fruit, ± ascending, often slightly thickened above. Sepals erect, inner saccate at base. Petals about twice as long as the sepals, spathulate-oblong, clawed, apex ± emarginate. Stamen 6; filaments not appendaged; anthers oblong, obtuse. Lateral nectar glands usually in pairs, pyramidate or semi-annular; middle glands absent. Ovary linear, usually with irregular margins, bilocular, 8-26-ovuled; style long with short, bilobed stigma. Siliquae linear, subcylindrical, torulose or moniliform, ± beaked, usually transversely breaking into several 2-seeded parts, rarely irregularly dehiscent; septum membranous, breaking away with seeded parts, leaving the replum intact; seeds few to many, subglobose, not winged.
About 10 species, chiefly Asian; 5 recorded from our area.
