cosmopolitan except cold parts like Greenland; the tribes Cleomoideae and Capproideae mostly appear in tropical to sub-tropical regions, Brassicoideae mostly in temperate regions
Floral characters
bractless indeterminate racemes or solitary flowers; terminal or axillary; usually bisexual, radial or bilateral Flower formula: Ca4 Co4 A2-6-endless G_(2) The petals usually form a cross; the stamens have all more or less the same length or the two outer are shorter than the four inner ones.Filaments are rather short to elongate, distinct or connate in pairs receptacle with nectaries, rarely prolonged into gynophore Pollination: by insects or (in some tropical Capparis species) by birds and bats
Leaf characters
simple to pinnately dissected or lobed, palmately or pinnately compound; rarely with articulated leaflets usually alternate or spirally arranged, rarely opposed; sometimes in basal rosettes; the margin is entire to serrate with palmate or pinnate venation; if there are stipules they are usually small
Stipules
present or absent
Fruit characters
Capsule, berry or silique dispersal: the 2 valves of the silique (or capsule) fall away and the seed is scattered by wind and/or rain. Small seeds may also be explosively released from the siliques. The fleshy fruits ( Capparis) are dispersed by mammals and birds.
Glands
present
Hairs
absent
Latex
absent
Uses
many food and spice plants like mustard, radish, rape, turnips; very important vegetable plant is Brassica oleacea; vegetable oil is extracted of the seeds of several species of Brassica. The family also contains lots of ornamental plants and the most important vascular plant in molecular and experimental biology: Arabidopsis thaliana
Chemical characters
mustard-oil glycosids cause an acrid taste; alcaloids
Distribution maps
(online von http://www.mobot.org/MOBOT/research/APweb/ . Dort zitiert wie unter jedem Diagramm vermerkt):
