CREMOLOBUS de Candolle, Mém. Mus. Hist. Nat. 7: 235. 1821.

Ihsan A. Al-Shehbaz

Tribe: ?

Name derivation: Greek kremo, hang, and lobos, fruit, in reference to the hanging fruit lobes.

Lectotype species (here designated): C. peruvianus (Lamarck) de Candolle (based on Biscutella peruviana Lamarck).

Loxoptera O. E. Schulz, Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 66: 93. 1933. Type species: L. stenophylla (Muschler) O. E. Schulz (based on Cremolobus stenophyllus Muschler).

Urbanodoxa Muschler, Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 40: 271. 1908. Type species: U. rhomboidea (W. J. Hooker) Muschler (based on Cremolobus rhomboideus W. J. Hooker).

            Herbs annual or perennial, sometimes subshrubs or vines to 5 m. Trichomes absent or simple, rarely branched. Multicellular glands absent. Stems erect to ascending, sometimes scandent, simple or branched. Basal leaves (when present) petiolate, rosulate, simple, entire or variously pinnately dissected; cauline leaves petiolate or sessile, not auriculate, alternate or uppermost opposite, entire, dentate, or pinnatifid. Racemes many flowered, dense or lax, ebracteate, corymbose, elongated in fruit; rachis straight or rarely flexuous; fruiting pedicels erect to ascending or divaricate, persistent. Sepals ovate to oblong, free, deciduous, erect, equal, base of lateral pair not saccate or subsaccate. Petals white or yellow, erect at base with flaring blade, longer than sepals; blade oblong to spatulate, apex obtuse; claw undifferentiated. Stamens 6, nearly included, erect, tetradynamous; filaments wingless, unappendaged, glabrous, free; anthers ovate to oblong, obtuse at apex. Nectar glands lateral, 2 or 4 and 1 on each side of lateral stamens; median glands absent. Ovules 2 per ovary; placentation subapical. Fruit indehiscent, schizocarpic silicles, strongly didymous, strongly angustiseptate, not inflated, unsegmented; valves deltoid to orbicular, thickened, obscurely to prominently veined, glabrous or hairy, keeled, smooth, reticulate, or rugose, wingless or wing encircling valve, unappendaged; gynophore absent or 0.5-3.5 mm; replum rounded, visible; septum complete, thickened, veinless; style obsolete or distinct and stout, cylindric or subconical, glabrous, persistent; stigma capitate, entire or 2-lobed, lobes obscure, not decurrent, unappendaged. Seeds aseriate, wingless, orbicular or elliptic, flattened; seed coat minutely reticulate, not mucilaginous when wetted; cotyledons accumbent.

            Seven species: Andes from Colombia to northern Argentina and Chile.

Reference: Khanna and Rollins (1965).

                                                  Key to the species of Cremolobus

1. Uppermost leaves opposite; style absent; fruit sessile, reticulate, wingless.

     2. Fruiting pedicels horizontal; plants densely pubescent with long trichomes ........... 1. C. bolivianus

     2. Fruiting pedicels erect to ascending, subappressed to rachis; plants glabrous or sparsely

               puberulent with short trichomes ...............................................................  2. C. subscandens

1. Uppermost leaves alternate (sometimes subopposite in C. rhomboideus); style distinct; fruit

     stipitate, not reticulate, often winged.

     3. Annuals.

          4. Fruiting pedicels 4-7(-9) mm; fruit valves winged, margin fringed, crenate,

               dentate, or entire............................................................................................ 6. C. chilensis

          4. Fruiting pedicels 10-20 mm; fruit valves wingless, margin repand .............. 7. C. rhomboideus

     3. Perennials.

          6. Fruiting pedicels 10-25 mm; plants glabrous; valves 3-4 mm diam. .......... 5. C. suffruticosus

          6. Fruiting pedicels (4-)5-9(-11) mm; plants pubescent; valves (6-)8-13

                   mm diam.

               7. Stems, pedicels, and leaves exclusively with stellate trichomes; petals 2.5-3(-4)

                   mm; pedicels densely pubescent all around .............................................  3. C. pubescens

               7. Stems, pedicels, and leaves puberulent or rarely pilose with simple trichomes,

                   or leaves sometimes completely glabrous; petals 4-5.5 mm; pedicels densely

                   puberulent only adaxially, rarely sparsely pilose all around .......................  4. C. peruvians