Descurainia kenheilii by Ihsan Al-Shehbaz
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General description:
Diminutive, short-lived perennial with yellowish flowers. Plants are 0.1-0.15 dm tall, erect, simple or rarely few branched above. Basal and lowermost cauline leaves are pinnate, and oblanceolate in outline. Racemes are not elongated in fruit; fruiting pedicels are erect to ascending. Plants are sparsely pubescent throughout with dendritic trichomes (Al-Shehbaz 2007).
Look Alikes:
From D. torulosa, D. kenheilii is easily distinguished by having glabrous (vs. sparsely pubescent) fruit valves and styles, prominently veined (vs. veinless) septa, 4-8 (vs. 10-18) seeds and ovules per fruit, uniseriate (vs. biseriate) seeds, straight (vs. curved outward) and non-appressed (vs. basally appressed) fruits 1.0-1.3 (vs. 0.6-0.8) mm wide, and not elongated (vs. considerably elongated) fruiting racemes (Al-Shehbaz 2007).
Phenology:
The one known specimen of this species was collected with flowers and fruit on September 13, 1997 (Colorado Natural Heritage Program 2012).