Species: Rorippa curvipes var. truncata (Jepson) Rollins

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Rorippa curvipes var. truncata (Jepson) Rollins

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TAXONOMY

Family:

Brassicaceae

Genus:

Rorippa

Species Synonyms:

Rorippa obtusa var. integra (Rydb.) Victorin
Radicula sinuata var. truncata Jepson
Rorippa curvipes var. integra (Rydb.) R. Stuckey
Rorippa truncata (Jepson) R. Stuckey

Common Names:

bluntleaf yellowcress
wild yellowcress
curved yellowcress

DISTRIBUTION

Canada:

southwestern British Columbia - southern Alberta - southern Saskatchewan

Saskatchewan:

southern Saskatchewan; Hoosier - Kindersley - Pangman

Ecoregion:

Mixed Grassland, Moist Mixed Grassland

HABITAT

Saskatchewan:

non-alkaline, drying mudflats and edges of sloughs in sandy or clay soil

Associated Species:

cudweed, dockweed, knotweed, neckweed, salt sandspurry, short-awn meadow foxtail, sloughgrass, water mudwort

RARITY STATUS

Provincial Status According
to Harms (2003):

Vulnerable

Nature Conservancy Status:

G5T5 S2S3

Saskatchewan Species at
Risk Status:

None

COSEWIC Status:

None

Bluntleaf yellowcress is vulnerable because it is rare or uncommon in Saskatchewan. This species is regionally restricted to one area of the province and the populations are sparse and scattered. The occurrence of this species in Saskatchewan may represent a northward range expansion.

SPECIES DESCRIPTION

Height:

10 – 40 cm (long)

Roots:

taproot

Stems:

annual, several, tufted, creeping, branched, hairless

Leaves:

basal and on the stem, basal leaves grading into stem leaves, alternate, short-stalked, may have small ear-like lobes at base, 3 – 10 cm long, 7 – 20 mm wide, deeply to shallowly pinnately lobed, lobes entire to toothed, terminal lobe oval and larger than lateral lobes, apex obtuse; ridges on midrib translucent

Inflorescence:

lateral, unbranched, many-flowered, elongating in fruit; stalks short

Flowers:

sepals 0.9 – 1.5 mm long, slightly sac-like; petals 0.9 – 1.2 mm long, whitish; style linear, straight, abruptly attached to obtuse tip of ovary; stigma expanded, disk-like

Fruits:

pod short, 3.5 – 5.5 mm long, 2 – 4 times longer than wide, 1.8 – 2.5 times longer than stalks, cylindrical, constricted at center, readily opening, hairless; seeds 30 – 80 per silique, 0.5 mm long

*KEY TO RORIPPA* IN SASKATCHEWAN**

1 Petals longer than sepals	2
1 Petals shorter than or equal to sepals	4

2 Middle and upper leaves toothed to nearly entire, not lobed; stalks usually 3 – 4 times longer than fruit; pods spherical to subspherical	R. austriaca
2 Middle and upper leaves lobed, the divisions toothed; stalks only slightly longer than fruit; pods cylindrical	3

3 Stems erect; leaves and stem hairless or sparingly hairy, lacking hair-like epidermal outgrowths; leaf divisions tapered, toothed	R. sylvestris
3 Stems creeping; leaves and stems with hair-like epidermal outgrowths; leaf divisions obtuse, entire to toothed	R. sinuata

4 Stems sparingly to densely hairy below	5
4 Stems hairless throughout	7

5 Leaves thin, upper and lower lobed; pods 3 – 4 mm long	R. palustris var. palustris
5 Leaves firm, upper leaves toothed to shallowly lobed; pods 2 – 9 mm long	6

6 Stems sparsely hairy below; pods slightly wider in the middle, 3 – 9 mm long	R. palustris var. fernaldiana
6 Stems densely hairy below; pods subspherical, 2 – 5.5 mm long	R. palustris var. hirsuta

7 Fruiting styles straight; pods 2 – 4 times longer than wide, surface smooth, constricted at center	R. curvipes var. truncata
7 Fruiting styles tapering towards the tip; pods more than 4 times as long as wide, surface minutely bumpy, not constricted at center	R. tenerrima