Physaria obcordata

Physaria obcordata is a rare species of flowering plant in the family Brassicaceae known by the common name Dudley Bluffs twinpod. It is similar in appearance to the more common Piceance twinpod, but can be distinguished by looking at the leaves through a hand lens. The Piceance twinpod, Physaria acutifolia has stellate hairs when viewed through a hand lens while Physaria ocordata has markings that look like a satellite dish, or a circle with a dot in the middle. It is endemic to Colorado, where it is found only in the Piceance Basin in Rio Blanco County. It is threatened by the loss and degradation of its habitat. It is a federally listed threatened species of the United States. This plant was discovered in 1982 and described to science in 1983. Its Piceance Basin habitat is open, barren, and made up of white shale outcrops in the Green River Formation. The topography has been shaped by rivers cutting down through the substrate. Much of the rock is oil shale covering deposits of natu......read more on Wikipedia.