Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses

TWIST-FLOWER

File Size: 35 KB

Streptanthus hyacinthoides Hook.

Comanche County, Kansas

Annual

Height: To 40 inches

Family: Brassicaceae - Mustard Family

Flowering Period: April, May, June

Also Called:

Smooth twistflower.

Stems:

Erect, simple or rarely branched above, glabrous, often purplish.

Leaves:

Alternate, spreading, linear-lanceolate, .8 to 6 inches long, 1/10 to 3/5 inch wide, glabrous; margins entire or remotely toothed; tip pointed; sessile or short-stalked; basal leaves absent.

Inflorescences:

Raceme, 10- to 30-flowered, terminal.

Flowers:

Spreading or drooping; stalk 1/10 to 1/5 inch long; calyx urn-shaped; sepals 4, ovate to lance-ovate, 1/5 to 2/5 inch long, to 1/8 inch wide, glabrous; tips pointed, dark purple; petals 4, fiddle-shaped, 1/2 to 4/5 inch long, lavender with dark veins to dark purple, entire to notched; stamens 6; outer 2 included, filaments distinct; inner 4 projecting out, filaments united below in pairs.

Fruits:

Pod, spreading-ascending,2.4 to 4 inches long, up to 1/10 inch wide; seeds circular, flattened, smooth, brown.

Habitat:

Prairie hillsides and pastures; sandy or gravelly soils.

Distribution:

South-central Kansas.

Uses:

Native Americans in the Southwest used a related species Streptanthus cordatus as greens and the juice from the roots as drops for sore eyes.

Comments:

From Greek streptos "twisted" and anthos "flower" for the petals with wavy-margins.

Twist-flower