''Physaria lepidota'', the Kane County twinpod, is a plant species

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

. It is known only from Kane,

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

, and Garfield Counties in the southern part of the state. It grows on rocky slopes and outcrops, and sometimes in disturbed areas.Flora of North America v 7 p 648
''Physaria lepidota'' is a perennial herb with most of the above-ground parts covered with a silvery

pubescence Puberty is the process of physical changes through which a child's body matures into an adult body capable of sexual reproduction. It is initiated by hormonal signals from the brain to the gonads: the ovaries in a girl, the testes in a boy. I ...

. Stems branch at the base but rarely above, sometimes reaching a height of 20 cm (8 inches). Flowers are yellow, born in a dense

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 ...

. Fruits are highly inflated, up to 20 mm (0.8 inches) across with purplish papery walls.

Subspecies

Despite the limited range of the species, two subspecies are generally recognized, differing in the shapes of the fruits and of the hairs in the pubescence:Rollins, Reed Clark. Studies in the genus Physaria (Cruciferae). Brittonia 33(3): 338. 1981.
/ref> ''Physaria lepidota'' subsp. ''lepidota'' and ''Physaria lepidota'' subsp. ''membranacea'' The two subspecies also differ in chromosome number (2n=16 for subsp. ''lepidota'', 2n=8 for subsp. ''membranacea'').

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q16988058 lepidota Flora of Utah Endemic flora of the United States Kane County, Utah Flora without expected TNC conservation status