CRUCIFERAE
General description:- A large family of annual, biennial and perennial herbs, with a smaller number of subshrubs and shrubs. The family is especially diverse in temperate regions.
Characteristics:- Leaves usually alternate, simple or divided and without stipules. Flowers are usually bisexual and actinomorphic, with 4 sepals and 4 petals arranged crosswise. The characteristic androecium has 6 stamens, 4 long and 2 short.
Flowers:- Inflorescences are commonly racemes without bracts. Sepals 4, usually in two pairs. Petals 4, free, often clawed. Stamens usually 6 and tetradynamous. Ovary superior, formed from 2 carpels and usually divided by a persistent false septum.
Fruit and seeds:- Fruit typically a siliqua when markedly longer than broad, or a silicula when relatively short. The two valves usually separate at maturity from a persistent frame bearing the false septum. Seeds lack endosperm.
Recognition:- The combination of 4 cross-shaped petals, 6 tetradynamous stamens and siliqua or silicula fruits is highly characteristic.
Genera relevant to catalogue:- Alliaria, Arabidopsis, Arabis, Armoracia and Turritis are represented in the present selection.
Taxonomic note:- CRUCIFERAE is a conserved alternative family name to Brassicaceae. Modern classifications normally use Brassicaceae.
Catalogue note:- The present family entry contains Alliaria petiolata, Arabidopsis petraea, Arabis glabra, Arabis hirsuta, Arabis scabra and Armoracia rusticana.