''Physaria tumulosa'' is a rare species of

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...

in the family Brassicaceae known by the common name Kodachrome bladderpod. It is

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 ...

in the United States, where it is known only from Kane County.''Lesquerella tumulosa''.
The Nature Conservancy. There is only one known population of this plant made up of scattered occurrences totalling about 20,000 individuals, all within the Kodachrome Basin.USFWS
''Lesquerella tumulosa'' Final Recovery Outline.
October 2009. The plant is threatened by the loss and degradation of its

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

. It is federally listed as an

endangered species An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and inv ...

. It was previously treated as a subspecies of '' Physaria hitchcockii''.''Physaria tumulosa''.
Flora of North America. This 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 ...

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 ...

producing short stems from a buried

caudex A caudex (plural: caudices) of a plant is a stem, but the term is also used to mean a rootstock and particularly a basal stem structure from which new growth arises.pages 456 and 695 In the strict sense of the term, meaning a stem, "caudex" is m ...

and forming a tough mat just a few centimeters tall. The mat has hairy, somewhat fleshy leaves which are linear or lance-shaped and up to 1.2 centimeters long. The

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. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed o ...

is a crowded

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 bright yellow flowers. The fruit is an inflated silique a few millimeters wide.USFWS
Final rule to determine a Utah plant, ''Lesquerella tumulosa'' (Kodachrome Bladderpod) as an endangered species.
''Federal Register'' October 6, 1993. The single known population of this plant is mostly located on land within the bounds of the Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument and Kodachrome Basin State Park. It grows on dry outcrops of white

shale Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock formed from mud that is a mix of flakes of clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4) and tiny fragments (silt-sized particles) of other minerals, especial ...

at roughly in

elevation The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § Vert ...

. The rock is part of the Carmel geologic formation. The plant is commonly associated with

buckbrush Buckbrush is the common name for several species of North American shrubs that deer feed on, including but probably not limited to: *''Cephalanthus occidentalis'' *'' Phyllanthopsis phyllanthoides'', maidenbrush (south-central U.S.) * Some western N ...

(''Purshia tridentata'') and yellow cryptantha (''Cryptantha flava''), but it grows on bare rocky substrate with little other vegetation. This plant is a narrow endemic which is limited in distribution, and the land on which it grows is impacted by a number of processes. The main threat to the species is off-road vehicle use. The vehicles cause soil degradation,

erosion Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as water flow or wind) that removes soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust, and then transports it to another location where it is deposited. Erosion is distin ...

, and plant mortality. Gravel mining was a threat to the species but since the area was designated a national monument these operations have ceased.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15372808 tumulosa Flora of Utah Endemic flora of the United States Kane County, Utah Critically endangered flora of the United States