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Key to Brassicaceae, Key A: plants in flower, trichomes of plant absent or, if present, unbranched

Brassicaceae

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1 Flowers (all, or at least many) solitary on scapes
1 Flowers in racemes.
  2 Flowers yellow.
      4 Upper stems glaucous.
        5 Petals 6-30 mm long, clawed
        5 Petals 2-4 mm long, not clawed
      4 Upper stems green.
          6 Stems angular distally; blooming Apr to early Jun
          6 Stems not angular distally; blooming Apr to Oct
    3 Leaves not clasping at base.
             7 Petals with contrasting dark yellow, brown, maroon, or purple veins; [tribe Brassiceae]
               8 Petals yellow; basal leaves with 3-10 lobes per margin; stems usually sparsely to densely hispid basally; cauline leaf blades usually lobed (but fewer than basal leaves)
               8 Petals yellow or creamy white; basal leaves with 1-4 lobes per margin; stems sparsely to densely pubescent; cauline leaf blades often undivided
             7 Petals mostly uniform in color.
                 9 Ovaries and young fruits 2-segmented; petals 5-30 mm long; [tribe Brassiceae]
                     11 Valves of the fruit 1-veined; sepals erect or ascending (rarely spreading); terminal segment of fruit conic, usually seedless
                     11 Valves of the fruit 3-7-veined (1-veined in Rhamphospermum nigrum); sepals spreading to reflexed; terminal segment of fruit either linear or ensiform (flattened and 2-edged).
                       12 Terminal segment of fruit linear 0.1-1.6 cm long, seedless or 1-seeded.
                       12 Terminal segment of fruit ensiform (flattened and 2-edged), (1-) 1.5-2.5 (-3) cm long, seedless
                 9 Ovaries and young fruits unsegmented; petals 1-8 mm long.
  2 Flowers white, cream, pinkish, purple, lavender, or blue.
                                16 Plants with only basal leaves or cauline leaves much reduced.
                                  17 Plants annual or perennial; flowers actinomorphic; petals absent, rudimentary, or to 16 mm long; [tribe Cardamineae]
                                             22 Plants terrestrial, though sometimes growing partially submerged; not rooting at nodes.
                                                    25 Cauline leaves simple or pinnately to palmately compound, typically not auriculate; if simple and auriculate, then plants usually with a mix of compound and simple cauline leaves and the simple leaves ovate or oblong and never deeply pinnatifid (as in C. clematitis)
                              15 Leaves basal and cauline but not auriculate (basal leaves sometimes withering upon flowering, thus only appearing alternate).
                                                                     33 Petals 15-30 mm long; fruit conspicuously coin-like, oblong to suborbicular and latiseptate (flattened parallel to septum); [tribe Lunarieae]
                                                                     33 Petals rarely to 20 mm long; fruit ovate to linear (if rounded not strongly flattened like a coin, or if flattened the fruit long and slender as in Warea).
                                                                       34 Inflorescence elongate or corymbose (if so, not also collectively as above); claws differentiated or not from blades; fruit terete, latiseptate, or augustiseptate (flattened perpindicular to septum), stipate or not, linear to ovate in shape; [widespread natives and non-natives]

Key to Brassicaceae, Key C: plants in fruit, trichomes of plant absent or, if present, unbranched

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1 Fruits silicles (< 3× as long as wide).
  2 Fruits 2-segmented
    3 Plants succulent, leaves usually fleshy
    3 Plants herbaceous, not succulent, leaves not fleshy
  2 Fruits unsegmented.
      4 Fruits 2 cm or more wide
      4 Fruits < 2 cm wide.
        5 Fruits with 20 or more seeds
        5 Fruits with 16 or fewer seeds.
          6 Fruits with 1 seed.
          6 Fruits with 2-16 seeds.
               8 Fruits with more than 2 seeds.
                   10 Stems 5-12 (-20) dm tall; leaf blades of basal leaves (3-) 5-12 (-17) cm long
                   10 Stems 0.5-1.5 (-2) dm tall; leaf blades of basal leaves 0.3-1.5 (-2) cm long
                     11 Plants not fetid; seeds usually smooth, yellowish to medium brown
                     11 Plants fetid; seeds striate or alveolate, dark gray to dark brown or black
1 Fruits siliques (> 3× as long as wide).
                          13 Fruits segmented, usually more than 1-seeded.
                                                 24 Fruit stipitate; cauline leaves entire, not auriculate; flowers pink to purple (or white in W. carteri), [natives of sandhills and coastal plain, NC to s. MS]
                                                 24 Fruit sessile or short-stipitate; cauline leaves usually lobed or at least dentate, the bases auriculate or somewhat clasping; flowers yellow; [non-natives, widespread]
                                                                 31 Cauline leaves usually ascendant and concealing stems (at least basally); petals 2-5 mm long (except for 5-10 mm long in B. missouriensis)
                                                                       34 Basal leaves usually present at flowering or after; cauline leaves with linear, filiform, lyrate, or runcinate lobes (occasionally unlobed, but if so then leaves usually linear or otherwise thin); petals yellow; [non-natives of various habitats]