Cochlearia Cochlearia, DC.

3. C. pyrenaica DC. , Reg. Veg. Syst. Nat. 2: 365 (1821)

(C. officinalis subsp. pyrenaica (DC.) Rouy & Fouc. ; inch C. alpina (Bab.) H. C. Watson , C. excelsa Zahlbr. ).

Basal leaves usually reniform. Fruiting pedicels equalling or shorter than the silicula. Petals 4-8 mm; lateral veins usually anastomosing to form only one mesh on each side of the mid-vein. Silicula 4-7 mm, ovoid-ellipsoid, attenuate at both ends; style 0-2- 1 mm. 2« = 12, 28. • Mountains of C. Europe, extending to Belgium, the Pyrenees and the Ukrainian Carpathians. Au Be Br Cz Ga Ge He Rm Rs (W).

Plants from Britain and Ireland that have been distinguished as C. alpina (Bab.) H. C. Watson , Cyb. Brit. 1: 127 (1847) are often indistinguishable morphologically from plants of C. pyrenaica from the Pyrenees and the mountains of C. Europe. The reported chromosome numbers are: C. pyrenaica 2n = 12 and C. alpina 2«= 12, 28, the latter number being doubtful.

Slender, not fleshy, perennial plants with small, suborbicular basal leaves, petiolate lower cauline leaves, petals c. 5 mm, and ellipsoidal siliculae c. 5 x 2-5 mm from mountains in N. Britain have been called C. micacea E. S. Marshall , Jour. Bot. (London) 32: 289 (1894). They may best be considered a small, narrowfruited variant of C. pyrenaica .