Rorippa sphaerocarpa
Encyclopedia
Rorippa sphaerocarpa is a species of flowering plant in the mustard family
Brassicaceae
Brassicaceae, a medium sized and economically important family of flowering plants , are informally known as the mustards, mustard flowers, the crucifers or the cabbage family....

 known by the common name roundfruit yellowcress. It is native to North America, including the western United States and northern Mexico, where it grows in moist habitat, such as riverbanks and mudflat
Mudflat
Mudflats or mud flats, also known as tidal flats, are coastal wetlands that form when mud is deposited by tides or rivers. They are found in sheltered areas such as bays, bayous, lagoons, and estuaries. Mudflats may be viewed geologically as exposed layers of bay mud, resulting from deposition of...

s. It is an annual herb producing decumbent or erect stems up to 40 centimeters long. The leaves are up to 10 centimeters long and have blades are deeply divided into toothed lobes. The inflorescence
Inflorescence
An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Strictly, it is the part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed and which is accordingly modified...

 is a raceme
Raceme
A raceme is a type of inflorescence that is unbranched and indeterminate and bears pedicellate flowers — flowers having short floral stalks called pedicels — along the axis. In botany, axis means a shoot, in this case one bearing the flowers. In a raceme, the oldest flowers are borne...

 of mustardlike flowers with yellow petals each no more than a millimeter long. The fruit is a round silique
Silique
A silique or siliqua is a fruit of 2 fused carpels with the length being more than three times the width. The outer walls of the ovary usually separate when ripe, leaving a persistent partition...

1 or 2 millimeters wide.

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