CHRISTOLEA Cambessèdes in Jacquemont, Voy. Inde 4: 17. 1844.
Ihsan A. Al-Shehbaz
Tribe: Euclidieae de Candolle, Mém. Mus. Hist. Nat. 7(1): 236. 1821.
Name derivation: for Jules de Christol (1802-1861), a French paleoanthropologist.
Type species: C. crassifolia Cambessèdes
Koelzia K. H. Rechinger, Phyton (Horn) 3: 59. 1951. Type species: K. afghanica K. H. Rechinger.
Herbs, perennial with a woody caudex or herbaceous base. Trichomes simple, slightly flattened. Multicellular glands absent. Stems erect to ascending, branched from caudex and above, sometimes woody at base. Basal leaves absent; cauline leaves petiolate, simple, dentate, uppermost sometimes entire, not auriculate at base. Racemes many flowered, ebaracteate, corymbose, elongated considerably in fruit; rachis straight; fruiting pedicels ascending to suberect or reflexed, persistent. Sepals oblong, free, deciduous, suberect, equal, base of inner pair not saccate; petals white turning yellowish, erect at base with flaring blade, longer than sepals; blade spatulate, apex rounded; claw purple, somewhat differentiated from blade, subequaling sepals, glabrous, unappendaged, entire; stamens 6, included, erect, tetradynamous; filaments wingless, unappendaged, glabrous, free; anthers oblong, white apiculate at apex; nectar glands 1, confluent and subtending bases of all stamens; median nectaries present; lateral nectaries annular; ovules 10-20 per ovary; placentation parietal. Fruit dehiscent capsular siliques, linear, oblong, or lanceolate, latiseptate, not inflated, sessile, unsegmented; valves papery, with a distinct midvein and less prominent lateral veins, glabrous or puberulent, not keeled, torulose, wingless, unappendaged; gynophore absent or obsolete; replum rounded, covered by connate valve margins; septum complete, membranous, veinless; style obsolete, rarely to 0.5 mm, stout, persistent, glabrous; stigma capitate, entire or slightly 2-lobed. Seeds uniseriate, wingless, sometimes distally apiculate, oblong, sligtly flattened, transversely oriented in locule; seed coat minutely reticulate, not mucilaginous when wetted; cotyledons incumbent.
Two species: China, Himalaya and central Asia.
References: Botschantzev (1956), Jafri (1955).