Low annual or perennial herbs, with stellate pubescence, simple leaves, and racemose mainly yellow flowers. Petals entire. Anthers sagittate. Pod generally inflated, globose or oblong; valves nerveless; septum translucent, nerved from the apex to the middle. Seeds several or many in each cell of the pod, flattened, marginless or narrow-margined; cotyledons accumbent. [Dedicated to Leo Lesquerenx, 1805-1889, Swiss and American botanist.]

A genus of about 35 species, natives of America, and mainly of the western parts of the United States. Type species: Lesquerella Lescurii (A. Gray) S. Wats.

Pods stellate-pubescent.

Pods oblong, acute, 2" long; low perennial.

1.

L. spathulata.

Pods globose, 1" in diameter; tall annual or biennial.

2.

L. globosa.

Pods oval or subglobose, 2" long; tall biennial or perennial.

3.

L. argentea.

Pods glabrous or very nearly so.

Annual, sparingly pubescent; stem slender, 1°-2° tall, much branched; southwestern.

4.

L. gracilis.

Perennial, densely stellate; stem rather stout, 6'-12' tall, simple; western.

5.

L. ovalifolia.

Perennial, 1'-6' tall: stem simple; arctic.

6.

L. arctica.

1. Lesquerella Spathulata Rydberg. Low Bladder-Pod

Fig. 2013

Lesquerella spathulata Rydberg, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 3: 486. 1896.

Perennial, tufted from a deep root, very finely canescent and stellate, 4'-5' high; stems slender, generally numerous, simple. Lower leaves oblanceolate or spatulate, 6"-12" long, acutish, narrowed into a petiole; the upper linear, mainly less than.I" wide; flowers yellow, about 2" broad; racemes rather few-flowered; pedicels 3"-6" long, ascending, or recurved in fruit; pods oblong or nearly globose, slightly compressed, acute, subacute or rarely obtuse at each end, finely canescent, about 2" long, few-seeded, tipped with a style of about their own length; septum commonly imperforated.

Dry hills, Nebraska and South Dakota to Montana and the Northwest Territory. June.

1 Lesquerella Spathulata Rydberg Low Bladder Pod 355

2. Lesquerella Globòsa (Desv.) S. Wats. Short's Bladder-Pod

Fig. 2014

Vesicaria globosa Desv. Journ. Bot. 3: 184. 1814. Vesicaria Shortii T. & G. Fl. N. A. 1: 102. 1838. L. globosa S. Wats. Proc. Am. Acad. 23: 252. 1888.

Slender, erect or ascending, sparingly branching, 6'-2o' high, finely stellate-pubescent all over. Basal leaves obovate, 1'-1 1/2' long, obtuse; stem-leaves narrower, linear or oblong, smaller, sessile, entire or with slightly undulate margins, the lowest sometimes narrowed into a petiole; flowers yellow; petals 2"-3" long; pedicels slender, spreading, 4"-5" long in fruit; raceme elongating; pod nearly globular, 1" in diameter, glabrous when mature; seeds 1 or 2 in each cell; style very slender, 2" long.

In open places, Kentucky and Tennessee to eastern Missouri. April.

2 Lesquerella Glob Sa Desv S Wats Short s Bladder 3562 Lesquerella Glob Sa Desv S Wats Short s Bladder 357