Al Schneider's Rocky Mountains Plant Descriptions

Flaxleaf Plainsmustard
Sisymbrium linifolium
Mustard family (Brassicaceae)

Sisymbrium linifolium has bright yellow flowers surmounting tall slender stems with few narrow leaves. It is common to find clusters of dozens of these plants with numerous flowers on each plant giving a golden glow to their typical woodland habitat. They often mix with Penstemon strictus. Sisymbrium linifolium's leaves are often (blue-green). are often deeply and they begin dying around flowering time. "Sisymbrium" is a name given by the Greeks to some Mustard plant several thousand years ago. "Linifolium" is from the Latin for " leaves."


©2010 Matt Lavin

Description

, and usually , arising from a or branched (woody base of non-woody ) and , often creeping forming colonies. Stems 8-36" tall, erect , or branched. Leaves 1/2 to almost 4" long and from 1/25 to 1" wide, to deeply , the ones often withering shortly after the flowers bloom. yellow. Petals to almost 1/2" long, yellow, spreading. Sweet smelling. a pod much longer than wide.

Field Marks

Masses of very slender stems sway with clusters of very sweet smelling yellow flowers.

© Al Schneider

basal -- at the base, situated or attached at the base.

An entire leaf has smooth edges. Not toothed or lobed.

A perennial plant lives and blooms for many years.

pinnatifid -- A leaf shape that is pinnately lobed but not cut all the way to the axis.

Usually green, sepals typically function as protection for the flower in bud, and often as support for the petals when in bloom.

A simple leaf blade is one that is not divided into separate leaflets.

taproot -- The primary decending root of a plant.

glaucous -- Pale gray or bluish-green. It can mean covered with a greyish, bluish or whitish coating.

fruit -- any seed-bearing structure in flowering plants. It is formed from the ovary after flowering.

basal leaves -- a leaf that grows lowest on the stem of a plant.

caudex -- The woody stem base of some herbaceous perennials.

glabrous -- smooth, glossy, having no bristles or hair-like structures. Bald.

linear -- Long and very narrow like a blade of grass.