Search / Plant Profile / Physaria bellii

Plant Profile

Bell's Twinpod (Physaria bellii)

Rosette of silvery pubescent leaves & yellow, four-petaled flowers. Photo Credit: Carol Dawson

Global Rank: G2 - Imperiled
Legal Status: N/A
Family: Brassicaceae
State: CO
Nature Serve ID: 135965
Lifeform: Forb/herb
Date Inducted in National Collection: 02/10/1987

Description:

A member of the Mustard family, Physaria belli is restricted to limestone and calcareous shales of the Niobrara formation in the northern front range of Colorado. The bright yellow flowers of this plant form a halo around the grayish/green basal rosette of leaves. "Physa" mean bubble, which describes the inflated fruits that form on the species, which make the species easy to identify when fruits are present (Von Bargen 1997).

Where is Bell's Twinpod (Physaria bellii) located in the wild?

Habitat:

Dry, loose, gray to black shale slopes in Niobrara and Pierre Formation shales and limestones (Peterson and Harmon 1981).Bells twinpod is usually found in shrub communities dominated by Rhus trilobata and Cercocarpus montanus at elevations of 1,580 to 1,750 meters. However, it has been reported on a small outcrop of Niobrara shale near Deer Creek Canyon in Jefferson County. (OKane 1988)

Distribution:

Colorado endemic. Boulder, Jefferson, and Larimer Cos.; northern Front Range foothills (Spackman et al. 1997).

States & Provinces:

Bell's Twinpod can be found in Colorado

Which CPC Partners conserve Bell's Twinpod (Physaria bellii)?

Denver Botanic Gardens

Not Sponsored

Conservation Actions

Assigned 06/09/17

CPC's Plant Sponsorship Program provides long term stewardship of rare plants in our National Collection. We are so grateful for all our donors who have made the Plant Sponsorship Program so successful. We are in the process of acknowledging all our wonderful plant sponsorship donors on our website. This is a work in progress and will be updated regularly.

Conservation Actions

10/06/2020

Denver Botanic Gardens has conducted germination tests, banked seeds at the National Seed Storage Laboratory, and grown plants of this species for almost a decade.

10/06/2020

Linda Coulter, a Ph.D. student at Colorado State University, is studying the population dynamics of this species. (Courter 2002

10/06/2020

Denver Botanic Gardens has conducted germination tests, banked seeds at the National Seed Storage Laboratory, and grown plants of this species for almost a decade.

10/06/2020

Denver Botanic Gardens has conducted germination tests, banked seeds at the National Seed Storage Laboratory, and grown plants of this species for almost a decade.

10/06/2020

Denver Botanic Gardens has conducted germination tests, banked seeds at the National Seed Storage Laboratory, and grown plants of this species for almost a decade.

Nature Serve Biotics

05/02/2017

Restricted to outcrops of the Niobrara and Pierre formations, and red sandstone outcrops (Fountain, Ingleside, and Lykins formations) in northcentral Colorado. There are 25 occurrences with as many as one million individual plants. However, the species faces variety of threats including mining, suburban expansion along the Front Range, road construction, and invasion of its habitat by noxious weeds such as diffuse knapweed (Centaurea diffusa).

Thomas Grant

01/01/2010

Threats include mining (limestone for cement), urban expansion/construction, and invasive weeds (OKane 1988, Jennings 1989). Another potential threat is hybridization with a more common congener, Physaria vitulifera (Courter 2002).

Thomas Grant

01/01/2010

Denver Botanic Gardens has conducted germination tests, banked seeds at the National Seed Storage Laboratory, and grown plants of this species for almost a decade. Linda Coulter, a Ph.D. student at Colorado State University, is studying the population dynamics of this species. (Courter 2002)

Thomas Grant

01/01/2010

Populations exist on public land and are managed by Open Space departments as a sensitive species.

Thomas Grant

01/01/2010

Research needs include studies of reproductive biology and ecology, habitat requirements for seedling establishment and recruitment.

Thomas Grant

01/01/2010

Additional seed collection and banking.