Stems ascending, 5–15 cm from simple caudex clothed in old leaf bases. Basal leaves 2–6 cm long, the blades ovate to obovate, usually entire. Stem leaves spatulate to oblanceolate. Vestiture of dense, stellate hairs, the stellae branched. Petals 7–12 mm long. Fruit of 2 ovate lobes, inflated, 6–10 mm wide; style 4–6 mm long; seeds 2 per locule; pedicels spreading, straight to sigmoid, 5–10 mm long (
Lesica et al. 2012. Manual of Montana Vascular Plants. BRIT Press. Fort Worth, TX)..
Sharpleaf twinpod -
Physaria acutifolia*Pedicels are spreading, straight, or sigmoid, 5-10 mm long.
*Fruits inflated
and 2-lobed, 6-10 mm wide, and with 2 ovules per locule.
*Basal leaves ovate to obovate in shape and usually entire.
Wooly Twinpod -
Physaria didymocarpa var.
lanata, SOC
*Pedicels are spreading, straight to curved, 3-12 mm long.
*Fruits inflated
and obviously 2-lobed, 7-20 mm tall.
*Basal Leaves obovate in shape with entire to coarsely dentate margins.
Thick-leaf Bladderpod –
Physaria pachyphylla, SOC
*Inflorescence is a subumbellate raceme.
*Fruiting pedicels curve upwards (ascend), are 3-10 mm long, and less than 2 times longer than fruit.
*Fruits inflated, narrowly elliptic to globose (
not obviously appearing 2-lobed), and 3-6 mm tall. Style is 1-3 mm long, shorter than the mature fruit (silicle).
*Basal leaves have distinct petioles and blades. Basal blades are oblanceolate to orbicular in shape, nearly 1 mm thick, and cupped (
not folded).
*Plants grow on white to pinkish, limestone and gypsum soils on exposed ridges and slopes in the valley zone.
Sandy, usually calcareous soil of open slopes in grasslands, steppe, woodlands; plains, valleys (
Lesica et al. 2012. Manual of Montana Vascular Plants. BRIT Press. Fort Worth, TX).
