Chorispora tenella (Pallas) DC.
Family: Brassicaceae
Pertinent Synonyms & Notes (particularly those used in California; go to GRIN for other synonyms)
none
Pertinent Common Names (particularly those used in California; go to GRIN for other common names)
purple mustard, blue mustard
Primary Disseminule Type
fruit segment
Description (diagnostics are in brown)
Fruit a many-seeded, partially dehiscent silique, linear, typically curved, ± terete, slightly constricted between seeds at maturity, (1.4)1.8–3(4.5) cm long x (1.5)2–4 mm wide including the apical beak (=terminal segment) which is 7–20 mm long. At maturity, the fruit breaks apart transversely into boxy, woody, single-seeded segments measuring ca. 2 mm long x ca. 1.5 mm wide x ca. 1 mm thick. These segments tightly retain the seed and constitute the disseminule. They are produced from both valves of the pod so that each segment has a slightly convex side corresponding to the outside of the fruit and a flat, fibrous internal side representing tissue of the septum.
Seed oblong in outline, somewhat compressed (oblong to bilobed in cross-section), 1–1.6 mm long x 0.7–1 mm wide x (0.3)0.5–0.8 mm thick, with a distinct longitudinal groove on both faces delineating the radicle from the cotyledons. Surface glabrous, texture variable (rough), appearance greasy to shiny, yellowish to reddish-brown.
Hilum in a notch, white funiculus sometimes present.
Embryo bent, cotyledons accumbent, endosperm lacking.
Similar Species
Risk Assessment (codes in yellow or red indicate cause for concern; assessments are current as of mid-2011; click AUQP, NZBORIC, or NZBPI for access to the most recent versions of these databases and possible assessment changes)
AUQP, NZBORIC, NZBPI