Goldbachia


Goldbachia is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Brassicaceae.

General description

Goldbachia are annual, herbaceous plants. They lack trichomes and have branched stems.
The basal leaves are petiolate, entire, and dentate. Some species are rosulate, while others are not. The cauline leaves are sessile, auriculate or amplexicaul at the base, and entire, with the margins either repand or dentate. The cotyledons are incumbent.
The racemes are ebracteate and elongated when in fruit. Fruiting pedicels are filiform, recurved or reflexed, and articulate at the base or both ends. The sepals are ovate or oblong shaped, suberect, base of lateral pair, and either not saccate or sub-saccate. The petals are white, pink, or purplish and are longer than the sepals. The blade is spatulate with an obtuse apex. The claw is different than the sepals. It has 6 stamens, which are slightly tetradynamous. The median filament pairs are flattened at the base, with the lateral pair filiform. The anthers are ovate and obtuse at the apex. It has 4 nectar glands, which are minute; the median glands are free or confluent with laterals. The lateral glands are semi-annular and intrastaminal. The ovules are 1-3 per ovary, and are subapical.
The fruit is an indehiscent nutlet-like silicle or silicula, often breaking into 1-seeded units, and are oblong, ovoid, or ellipsoid. They are 1-loculed or transversely 2- or 3-loculed, terete or 4-angled, sessile, woody, often prominently veined, glabrous or papillate, smooth or torulose. It is sometimes verrucose-reticulate; replum rounded; septum absent; style absent, obsolete, or distinct, thickened and sub-conical; stigma capitate, entire. The seeds are uniseriate, wingless, oblong and plump. The seed coat is smooth, and not mucilaginous when damp.

Taxonomy

The genus name of Goldbachia is in honour of Carl Ludwig Goldbach, German-born Russian professor of botany in Moscow, and it was first described and published by Augustin Pyramus de Candolle in Carl Linnaeus's book Syst. Nat. Vol.2 on page 576 in 1821.

Known species

Includes 7 accepted Species, according to Kew;
The genus was verified by United States Department of Agriculture and the Agricultural Research Service on 31 July 2018.

Range and habitat

Its native range is eastern Europe, Transcaucasia, to Mongolia and Pakistan.
It is found in the countries of Afghanistan, China, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon-Syria, Mongolia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, Tibet, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Tuva, Uzbekistan, and western Siberia.
Goldbachia laevigata, Goldbachia pendula and Goldbachia ikonnikovii are found in China.