This section is from the book "An Illustrated Flora Of The Northern United States, Canada And The British Possessions Vol2", by Nathaniel Lord Britton, Addison Brown. Also available from Amazon: An Illustrated Flora of the Northern United States, Canada and the British Possessions. 3 Volume Set..
A glabrous erect perennial herb, with dentate leaves auricled at the base, or the lower and basal ones lyrate-pinnatifid, and violet or white flowers in panicled racemes. Sepals much shorter than the petals, the inner ones slightly gibbous at the base. Petals long-clawed. Styles stout; stigma subcapitate. Silique linear-cylindric, slightly compressed, somewhat constricted between the seeds. Seeds oblong, rounded, in 1 row in each cell. Cotyledons accumbent. [Greek, violet-colored flower.]
A monotypic genus of southeastern North America.
Fig. 2068
Hesperis (?) pinnatifida Michx. Fl. Bor.
Am. 2: 31. 1803. Iodanthus hesperidoides T. & G.; A. Gray, Gen. 1ll. 1: 134. 1848. Thelypodium pinnatifidum S. Wats. Bot.
King's Exp. 25. 1871. Iodanthus pinnatifidus Steud. Nomencl. Ed.
2, 812. 1841.
Glabrous, stem slender, 1°-3° high, branching above. Lower leaves ovate or oblong, occasionally cordate, 2'-8' long, dentate, tapering into a margined petiole which is clasping and auriculate at the base, the lower part of the blade often pinnatifid into 2-6 pairs of small oblong segments; stem-leaves similar or merely dentate, narrower, sometimes ovate-lanceolate, the upper nearly sessile; flowers numerous, 3"-4" broad; pedicels spreading, 2"-3" long in fruit; pods linear, 3/4'-1 1/2' long, i" wide, spreading or ascending; style stout, 1" long.
On river banks, western Pennsylvania to Minnesota, south to Tennessee, Missouri, Louisiana and Texas. May-June.
 
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