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Physaria fendleri
Also called Lesquerella
Fendler's bladderpod is a small desert perennial in the cabbage family, native to the southwestern US and northern Mexico, grown for its seed oil. It thrives in hot, dry conditions and needs little water once established.
Physaria fendleri is a species of flowering plant in the family Brassicaceae known by several common names, including Fendler's bladderpod, popweed, and lesquerella.
The plant is native to the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico.
The species is best known as the richest source of bladderpod oil. Most Physaria species contain the hydroxy acid, lesquerolic acid in their oil with a seed oil content of ~24%. This oil is useful as a replacement for castor oil in some applications due to its ability to form estolides. If the plant becomes more widely cultivated and breeding and refinement techniques are improved, the oil could be used in a number of industries, including cosmetics, coatings, plastics, and lubricants. One obstacle to use is the oil's reddish-brown color, which makes it less valuable for certain applications than the colorless or pale yellow castor oil. Breeding may reduce the pigment load of the plant's oils over time. Breeding may also favor other characteristics in this species, such as its capacity for cultivation in other climates, male sterility to allow better control of pollination, and tolerance for a wider array of soil types.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Physaria fendleri by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
