Conringia planisiliqua Fisch. & C. A. Mey.

Annual, 10-40 cm tall, erect rarely branched, glabrous, glaucous. Leaves oblong-ovate, ± thickish, glabrous somewhat glaucous, entire; lower or basal obovate, shortly stalked or sub-sessile, obtuse, entire or sometimes obscurely toothed, 3-10 cm long, 1-3 cm broad; upper leaves usually oblong-ovate, sessile, cordate, amplexicaul, 2-9 cm long, 1-5 cm broad, often violet coloured. Racemes usually many flowered, corymbose, ebracteate, up to 20 cm long in fruit. Flowers small, about 5 mm across, pale yellow or whitish, often dark-veined; pedicel 5-10 mm long, increasing up to 15 mm in fruit, slender, not thickened. Sepals 3.5-5 mm long, 1.2 mm broad, linear, ± equal, inner not or hardly saccate at the base. Petals 6-7 mm long, 1.5-2 mm broad, narrowly oblong, gradually narrowed towards the base, apex rounded or obtuse. Stamens c. 4: 5 mm long; anthers about 1 mm long. Siliquae linear compressed, 40-70 (-90) mm long, 1.5-2 mm broad, erect, straight, torulose on the valves only, glabrous, with an incomplete mid-vein on the valves (usually distinct in the lower portion) ; beak very short-about 1 mm long, narrow, straight with a depressed capitate, inconspicuous stigma; septum membranous, not veined; seeds 12-24 in each locule, c. 1.5 mm long, oblong-ellipsoid, brown.

Herbs (10-)15-50(-75) cm tall, mostly glabrous and glaucous. Stems erect, simple. Basal leaves withered by flowering. Middle cauline leaves broadly ovate or narrowly oblong, (1.2-)2-7(-10) × (0.5-)1-2.5(-3) cm, base deeply cordate-amplexicaul, margin entire, apex shortly mucronate; basal auricles ovate or lanceolate, to 1.5 cm. Fruiting pedicels slender, (4-)7-12(-15) mm, erect-ascending, subappressed to rachis, minutely papillate adaxially or rarely glabrous. Sepals linear, ascending, 3-4.5 × 0.5-1 mm, subequal, not saccate at base. Petals white or creamy white, with purplish veins extending to apex, oblong, 5-7 × 1.5-2 mm, apex obtuse; claw broad, 3-4 mm. Filaments slender, median pairs 3-4.5 mm, lateral pair 2-2.5 mm; anthers 1-1.2 mm. Ovules 24-44 per ovary. Fruit linear, latiseptate, (3-)3.5-8.5(-10) cm × 1.3-2 mm, erect or ascending, straight or rarely slightly curved, torulose, subsessile; valves obscurely veined; style 0.5-1.2(-2) mm; stigma entire. Seeds brown, oblong, 1.5-2 × 0.7-1 mm; cotyledons nearly incumbent. Fl. May-Jun, fr. Jun-Aug. 2n = 14.

Distribution: Trans-Caspian region, Anatolia, C. Asia, Iran, Afghanistan and W. Pakistan.

Xinjiang, Xizang [Afghanistan, India, Kashmir, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan; SW Asia].

Fl.Per. April-June.

Mountain slopes, sandy deserts, steppe; 300-3600 m.

Erysimum planisiliquum (Fischer & C. A. Meyer) Steudel; Sisymbrium planisiliquum (Fischer & C. A. Meyer) J. D. Hooker & Thomson.