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iNat·575976GenusPlantae26 field observations
  1. Plants
  2. ›Vascular Plants
  3. ›flowering plants
  4. ›Dicots
  5. ›Mustards, Capers, and Allies
  6. ›mustard family
  7. ›Brassicoideae
  8. ›Arabodae
  9. ›Alysseae
Physoptychis
Plate 1 of 1. (c) Oleksandr Shynder, some rights reserved (CC BY), uploaded by Oleksandr Shynder · via iNaturalist

Physoptychis

Brassicaceae () or (the older but equally valid) Cruciferae () is a medium-sized and economically important family of flowering plants commonly known as the mustards, the crucifers, or the cabbage family. Most are herbaceous plants, while some are shrubs. The leaves are simple (although are sometimes deeply incised), lack stipules, and appear alternately on stems or in rosettes. The inflorescences are terminal and lack bracts. The flowers have four free sepals, four free alternating petals, two shorter free stamens and four longer free stamens. The fruit has seeds in rows, divided by a thin wall (or septum). As of 2023, the family was divided into two subfamilies, Brassicoideae and Aethionemoideae, and as of September 2025, it contained over 350 accepted genera.

The family contains the cruciferous vegetables, including species such as Brassica oleracea (cultivated as cabbage, kale, cauliflower, broccoli and collards), Brassica rapa (turnip, Chinese cabbage, etc.), Brassica napus (rapeseed, etc.), Raphanus sativus (common radish), Armoracia rusticana (horseradish), the cut-flower Matthiola (stock) and the model organism Arabidopsis thaliana (thale cress).

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Where it lives

Recorded sightings

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geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.

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This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 575976.