DRABA Linnaeaus, Sp. Pl. 2: 642. 1753.

Ihsan A. Al-Shehbaz

Tribe: Arabideae de Candolle, Mém. Mus. Hist. Nat. 7(1): 229. 1821.

Name derivation: Greek drabe, acrid, used by Dioscorides to describe the taste of the leaves of certain cruciferous plants thought by some authors to have been the hoary cress Lepidium drabaLinnaeaus

Lectotype (designated by Green, 1925): D. incanaLinnaeaus.

Abdra Greene, Pittonia 4: 207. 1900. Type: A. brachycarpa (Nutt.) Greene.

Aizodraba Fourr., Ann. Soc. Linn. Lyon sér. 2, 16: 335. 1868. Type: A. aizoides (L.) Fourr. (based on Draba aizoidesLinnaeaus).

Coelonema Maxim., Bull. Acad. Imp. Sci. Saint-Pétersbourg 26: 423. 1880. Type: C. draboides Maxim.

Dolichostylis Turcz., Bull. Soc. Imp. Naturalistes Moscou 27: 305. 1854, non Cass. in F. Cuvier, Dict. Sci. Nat. 56: 138. 1828. Type : D. lindenii (Hook.) Turcz. (based on Leptonema lindenii Hook.).

Drabella (DC.) Fourr., Ann. Soc. Linn. Lyon sér. 2, 16: 335. 1868, non Nábelek, Acta Bot. Bohem. 3: 34. 1924 (Based on Draba sect. Drabella DC., Syst. Nat. 2: 351. 1821). Type: D. muralis (L.) Fourr.

Drabella Nábelek, Acta Bot. Bohem. 3: 32. 1924 (non (Candolle) Fourr., Ann. Soc. Linn. Lyon sér. 2, 16: 335. 1868. Type: D. thylacocarpa Nábelek.

Drabopsis K. Koch, Linnaea 15: 253. 1841. Type: D. verna K. Koch (=Arabis nuda Bélanger, Voy. Indes Or., Bot. t. 15a. 1834, D. nuda (Bélanger) Stapf, Denkschr. Akad. Wiss. Wien, Math.-Nat. Kl. 51(2): 298. 1886).

Erophila DC., Mém. Mus. Hist. Nat. 7: 234. 1821 (nom. cons.). Type: E. verna (L.) DC.

Leptonema Hook.,  Icon. Pl. t. 692. 1844 (non Jussieu 1824). Type: L. lindenii Hook.

Nesodraba Greene, Pittonia 3: 252. 1897. Type: not designated.

Pseudobraya Korsh., Zap. Imp. Akad. Nauk Fiz.-Mat. Otd. ser. 8. 4(4): 88. 1896. Type: P. kizyl-arti Korsh.

Schivereckia Andrz. ex DC, Syst. Nat. 2 : 300. 1821. TYPE: S. podolica (Besser) Andrz. ex DC. (based on Alyssum podolica Besser).

Stenonema W. J. Hooker in Bentham & J. D. Hooker, Gen. 1: 75 1862. Type: S. lindenii (W. J. Hooker) W. J. Hooker (based on Leptonema lindenii W. J. Hooker)

Thylacodraba (Nábelek) O. E. Schulz, Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 66: 94. 1933 (based on Draba sect. Thylacodraba Nábelek, Acta Bot. Bohem. 3: 34. 1924). Type: T. thylacocarpa (Nábelek) O. E. Schulz (Drabella thylacocarpa Nábelek).

Tomostima Raf., Neogenyton 2. 1825. Type: T. caroliniana (T. Walter) Nieuwl. (based on Draba caroliniana T. Walter).

     Herbs perennial with caudex, sometimes pulvinate, stoloniferous, or rhizomatous, rarely subshrubs with a woody stem base, less commonly annuals or biennials. Trichomes simple or variously branched, stalked or sessile, malpighiaceous, forked, cruciform, stellate, or dendritic, often more that one type present. Multicellular glands absent. Stems erect to ascending, sometimes prostrate, simple or branched basally and/or apically, leafy or leafless. Basal leaves petiolate or rarely sessile, rosulate or rarely not rosulate, simple, entire or dentate, rarely pinnately lobed; cauline leaves of flowering stems petiolate or sessile, cuneate or rarely auriculate at base, entire or dentate, absent in scapose plants. Racemes few to several or many flowered, ebracteate or rarely bracteate throughout or basally, corymbose or lax, slightly or considerably elongated in fruit; rachis straight, or slightly to strongly flexuous; fruiting pedicels erect, ascending, divaricate, or rarely recurved, persistent. Sepals ovate or oblong, free, deciduous or rarely persistent, erect to ascending or rarely spreading, equal or rarely unequal, base of lateral pair not saccate or subsaccate. Petals yellow or white, rarely red, pink, purple, or orange, erect at base with flaring blade or ascending, longer or rarely shorter than sepals or absent; blade obovate, spatulate, oblanceolate, or oblong, rarely linear, apex obtuse, rounded, emarginate, or rarely deeply 2-fid; claw slightly or strongly differentiated from blade, often shorter than sepals, glabrous, unappendaged, entire. Stamens 6, very rarely 4, exserted or included, erect or rarely spreading, slightly to strongly tetradynamous; filaments wingless or very rarely winged, unappendaged or very rarely appendaged, glabrous, free; anthers ovate or oblong, not apiculate. Nectar glands 1 and confluently subtending base or all filaments, 2 lateral, 4 lateral and 1 on each side of lateral stamen, median nectaries present or absent. Ovules 4 to numerous per ovary; placentation parietal. Fruit dehiscent, capsular siliques or silicles, linear, oblong, ovate, obovate, ovoid, obovoid, elliptic, lanceolate, orbicular, or globose, terete to strongly latiseptate, unsegmented; valves papery to rarely leathery, veinless or with a distinct midvein, glabrous pubescent, not keeled, smooth, wingless, unappendaged; gynophore absent; replum rounded, visible; septum complete or rarely fenestrate, membranous, veinless or rarely with a midvein; style obsolete or distinct and 0.5-17 mm long, cylindric, persistent; stigma capitate, entire or slightly 2-lobed, unappendaged. Seeds biseriate, wingless or rarely winged, oblong, ovate, to orbicular, often flattened; seed coat smooth, not mucilaginous when wetted; cotyledons accumbent.

Some 373 species: alpine and boreal North America, Europe, Asia, northwestern Africa, South America (Andes from Colombia south to the tip of Patagonia), rarely in temperate and low-elevation areas of North America and Eurasia.

 References:

See interactive key to the species