''Erysimum nevadense'' is a

perennial A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the years") is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also wide ...

short-lived

herb In general use, herbs are a widely distributed and widespread group of plants, excluding vegetables and other plants consumed for macronutrients, with savory or aromatic properties that are used for flavoring and garnishing food, for medicinal ...

endemic to the

Sierra Nevada The Sierra Nevada () is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primarily ...

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

, although there are some citations in the nearby

Sierra de Gádor Sierra de Gádor of Sierra Gador is a mountain range in southwest of the province of Almería, Spain.Sierra Gador ...

(

Almería Almería (, , ) is a city and municipality of Spain, located in Andalusia. It is the capital of the province of the same name. It lies on southeastern Iberia on the Mediterranean Sea. Caliph Abd al-Rahman III founded the city in 955. The city gr ...

). This

wallflower ''Erysimum'', or wallflower, is a genus of flowering plants in the cabbage family, Brassicaceae. It includes more than 150 species, both popular garden plants and many wild forms. The genus ''Cheiranthus'' is sometimes included here in whole o ...

occurs between 1,700 and 2,700 m above sea level in subalpine scrublands and alpine meadows. It may be treated as a narrowly

circumscribed In geometry, the circumscribed circle or circumcircle of a polygon is a circle that passes through all the vertices of the polygon. The center of this circle is called the circumcenter and its radius is called the circumradius. Not every polyg ...

single species, one of a group or complex of six separate species, or as a more broadly circumscribed species with six subspecies.

Description

''Erysimum nevadense''

sensu stricto ''Sensu'' is a Latin word meaning "in the sense of". It is used in a number of fields including biology, geology, linguistics, semiotics, and law. Commonly it refers to how strictly or loosely an expression is used in describing any particular co ...

(

synonym A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are all ...

''Erysimum nevadense'' subsp. ''nevadense'') is a

biennial Biennial means (an event) lasting for two years or occurring every two years. The related term biennium is used in reference to a period of two years. In particular, it can refer to: * Biennial plant, a plant which blooms in its second year and th ...

perennial plant A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the years") is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also wide ...

, generally branched with multiple flowering stems, usually less than high. It is well supplied with hairs, most of which are boat-shaped (navicular), although some are three-rayed. Its leaves, which may appear greyish-green because of the hairs, are much narrower than long, usually long by wide. The flowering stems, excluding the

raceme A raceme ( or ) or racemoid is an unbranched, indeterminate type of inflorescence bearing flowers having short floral stalks along the shoots that bear the flowers. The oldest flowers grow close to the base and new flowers are produced as the s ...

of flowers, are long. Individual flowers have yellow

petal Petals are modified Leaf, leaves that surround the reproductive parts of flowers. They are often advertising coloration, brightly colored or unusually shaped to attract pollinators. All of the petals of a flower are collectively known as the ''c ...

s that are long and wide and a

style Style is a manner of doing or presenting things and may refer to: * Architectural style, the features that make a building or structure historically identifiable * Design, the process of creating something * Fashion, a prevailing mode of clothing ...

long. The fruits are upright or drooping, usually less than long on

pedicels In botany, a pedicel is a stem that attaches a single flower to the inflorescence. Such inflorescences are described as ''pedicellate''. Description Pedicel refers to a structure connecting a single flower to its inflorescence. In the absenc ...

up to long.

Taxonomy

''Erysimum nevadense'' was first described by Georges François Reuter in 1855. In 1979,

Adolf Polatschek Adolf (also spelt Adolph or Adolphe, Adolfo and when Latinised Adolphus) is a given name used in German-speaking countries, Scandinavia, the Netherlands and Flanders, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Latin America and to a lesser extent in vari ...

described a number of new species of ''Erysimum''. Six of these were considered to be closely related to ''E. nevadense'', and in 1990, Peter William Ball explained the decision made in ''

Flora Europaea The ''Flora Europaea'' is a 5-volume encyclopedia of plants, published between 1964 and 1993 by Cambridge University Press. The aim was to describe all the national Floras of Europe in a single, authoritative publication to help readers identify ...

'' to reduce the six to subspecies of ''E. nevadense''. They were treated as separate species making up the ''nevadense'' group or complex in ''Flora Iberica'' in 1993. A

molecular phylogenetic Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to ...

study published in 2014 included four of the species, '' E. gomez-campoi'', '' E. mediohispanicum'', ''E. nevadense'' and '' E. rondae''. The study did not support the view that the four were closely related. In the combined

mitochondrial A mitochondrion (; ) is an organelle found in the cells of most Eukaryotes, such as animals, plants and fungi. Mitochondria have a double membrane structure and use aerobic respiration to generate adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which is use ...

and

nuclear DNA Nuclear DNA (nDNA), or nuclear deoxyribonucleic acid, is the DNA contained within each cell nucleus of a eukaryotic organism. It encodes for the majority of the genome in eukaryotes, with mitochondrial DNA and plastid DNA coding for the rest. It ...

analysis, ''E. mediohispanicum'' and ''E. nevadense'' fell into one clade, ''E. rondae'' into another, while ''E. gomez-campoi'' was sister to both clades. The authors concluded that the ''E. nevadense'' group did not have phylogenetic support.

Subspecies

Plants of the World Online Plants of the World Online (POWO) is an online database published by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. It was launched in March 2017 with the ultimate aim being "to enable users to access information on all the world's known seed-bearing plants by ...

divides ''Erysimum nevadense'' into six subspecies, which ''Flora Iberica'' treats as separate species. *''Erysimum nevadense'' subsp. ''fitzii'' (Polatschek) P.W.Ball = ''

Erysimum fitzii ''Erysimum fitzii'' is a biennial or short-lived perennial plant native to southern Spain. It has been treated as one of a complex of six species making up the ''nevadense'' group, or as ''Erysimum nevadense'' subsp. ''fitzii''. Taxonomy ''Erys ...

'' Polatschek *''Erysimum nevadense'' subsp. ''gomez-campoi'' (Polatschek) P.W.Ball = ''

Erysimum gomez-campoi ''Erysimum gomez-campoi'' (also spelt ''Erysimum gomezcampoi'') is a short-lived biennial plant, biennial or perennial plant native to southern Spain. It has been treated as one of a complex of six species making up the ''nevadense'' group, or a ...

'' Polatschek *''Erysimum nevadense'' subsp. ''mediohispanicum'' (Polatschek) P.W.Ball = ''

Erysimum mediohispanicum ''Erysimum mediohispanicum'' is a perennial short-lived monocarpic herb found in many montane regions of eastern Spain where it is distributed between 800–2,000 m above sea level and inhabits forests, scrublands, and shrublands. It occupies two ...

'' Polatschek *''Erysimum nevadense'' subsp. ''merxmuelleri'' (Polatschek) P.W.Ball = '' Erysimum merxmuelleri'' Polatschek *''Erysimum nevadense'' subsp. ''nevadense'' = ''Erysimum nevadense'' Reut., ''sensu stricto'' *''Erysimum nevadense'' subsp. ''rondae'' (Polatschek) P.W.Ball = '' Erysimum rondae'' Polatschek

Pollination biology

Flowers are visited by many species of insects belonging to the order

Hymenoptera Hymenoptera is a large order (biology), order of insects, comprising the sawfly, sawflies, wasps, bees, and ants. Over 150,000 living species of Hymenoptera have been described, in addition to over 2,000 extinct ones. Many of the species are Par ...

Diptera Flies are insects of the order Diptera, the name being derived from the Greek δι- ''di-'' "two", and πτερόν ''pteron'' "wing". Insects of this order use only a single pair of wings to fly, the hindwings having evolved into advanced ...

Coleoptera Beetles are insects that form the order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Endopterygota. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 400,000 describ ...

Lepidoptera Lepidoptera ( ) is an order (biology), order of insects that includes butterfly, butterflies and moths (both are called lepidopterans). About 180,000 species of the Lepidoptera are described, in 126 Family (biology), families and 46 Taxonomic r ...

and

Heteroptera The Heteroptera are a group of about 40,000 species of insects in the order Hemiptera. They are sometimes called "true bugs", though that name more commonly refers to the Hemiptera as a whole. "Typical bugs" might be used as a more unequivocal al ...

. Most abundant flower visitors are ''

Proformica ''Proformica'' is a genus of ants in the subfamily Formicinae. The genus is known from the Palearctic realm, from Mongolia through Central Asia to Spain. Colonies are small, generally containing a few hundred individuals, with a single queen ( ...

longiseta'' ( Formicidae), an ant species endemic to the Sierra Nevada and surrounding mountain ranges, '' Dasytes subaeneus'' (

Melyridae Melyridae (common name: soft-winged flower beetles) are a family of beetles of the superfamily Cleroidea. Description Most are elongate-oval, soft-bodied beetles 10 mm long or less. Many are brightly patterned in black and brown, yellow, ...

), ''

Malachius ''Malachius'' is a genus of soft-winged flower beetles belonging to the family Melyridae subfamily Malachiinae. ''Malachius'' species have been reported from Albania, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Spai ...

laticollis'' ( Malachidae) and some species of beeflies belonging to the genus ''

Bombylius ''Bombylius'' is a large genus of flies belonging to the family Bombyliidae. They are known as the bee-flies, due to their striking resemblance to bees and bumblebees, and are distributed worldwide. One species of the genus, ''Bombylius major'', ...

'' and '' Parageron'' (

Bombyliidae The Bombyliidae are a family of flies, commonly known as bee flies. Adults generally feed on nectar and pollen, some being important pollinators. Larvae are mostly parasitoids of other insects. Overview The Bombyliidae are a large family of fl ...

References

External links

evoflor
a web page on Erysimum floral evolution

{{Taxonbar, from=Q5396365 nevadense Endemic flora of Spain Perennial plants Plants described in 1855