BUNIAS Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 2: 669. 1753.

Ihsan A. Al-Shehbaz

Tribe: Buniadeae de Candolle, Mém. Mus. Hist. Nat. 7(1): 245. 1821.

Name derivation: Greek and Latin bunias, a kind of common mustard or turnip.  I

Lectotype species designated by Green (1929: 172): Bunias erucago Linnaeus.

Erucago P. Miller, Gard. Dict. Abr. Ed. 4. 1754. Type species: not designated.

     Herbs annual, biennial, or perennial with a caudex. Trichomes stalked forked and/or simple. Multicellular glands tuberculate or papillate, multiseriate. Stems erect to ascending, branched mostly apically. Basal leaves petiolate, often not rosulate, simple, entire, lyrate, or pinnatifid; cauline leaves sessile or subsessile above, cuneate to attenuate, not auriculate, entire to dentate. Racemes several- or many-flowered, dense or lax, ebaracteate, corymbose, elongated considerably in fruit; rachis straight; fruiting pedicels divaricate, persistent. Sepals oblong, free, deciduous, ascending to spreading, equal, base of inner pair not saccate. Petals yellow, ascending, longer than sepals; blade obovate, apex obtuse; claw distinct, glabrous, unappendaged, entire. Stamens 6, slightly exserted, erect, strongly tetradynamous; filaments filiform, wingless, unappendaged, not dilated at base, glabrous, free; anthers ovate or oblong, not apiculate at apex. Nectar glands 1, confluent and subtending bases of all stamens; median nectaries present; lateral nectaries semiannular and intrastaminal. Ovules 2-4 per ovary; placentation parietal or subapical. Fruit indehiscent, woody, nutletlike silicles, oblong or ovoid to subglobose, terete, 4-angled, or with 4 cristate wings, not inflated, unsegmented, readily detached from pedicel, 1-4-loculed; valves woody, united with rest of fruit, obscure; gynophore absent; replum not distinct; septum subwoody or absent; style obsolete or slender and to 6 mm, filiform to subconical, persistent, glabrous; stigma capitate, entire, unappendaged. Seeds aseriate, wingless, oblong to suborbicular or ovoid, plump or flattened; seed coat smooth; cotyledons spirolobal. x = 7.

     Two species: Europe, N Africa, SW and C Asia.

Reference: Greilhuber & Obermayer (1999).

                                                           Key to the species of Bunias

1.  Plants perennial; fruit 4-winged, 4-loculed, 3–4-seeded, (8–)9–13(–14) mm; petals (8–)10–13 mm;

     style in fruit 3.5–5(–6) mm................................................................................................. 1.  B. erucago

1.  Plants annual; fruit wingless, 1–2-loculed, 1–2-seeded, (5–)6–7(–8) mm; petals (4–)4.5–7(–8) mm;

     style in fruit obsolete or rarely to 1 mm ........................................................................... 2.  B. orientalis