Note: The word wallflower typically refers to several species of mustards in the genus Erysimum in the mustard family (Brassicaceae). The term "wallflower" also refers to a socially challenged boy or girl who remains at the sidelines of a dance or social event. This condition is usually caused by an abnormal fear or inability to interact with members of the same or opposite sex. It may also be caused by a fear or inability to dance in front of a lot of people.

One interesting perennial wildflower of the mustard family (Brassicaceae) with peculiar, lyre-shaped silicles is called "lyre pod" (Lyrocarpa coulteri var. palmeri). Lyre pod is occasionally seen in rocky outcrops and desert canyons of San Diego County and adjacent Baja California, often found growing among clumps of other shrubs. It produces small seed pods (silicles) with the general shape of a lyre, a small, stringed, harp-like instrument used by ancient Greeks to accompany singers and reciters. Curiously enough, a lyre-shaped marking also occurs on the head of a seldom-seen snake that inhabits nearby rocky outcrops and hides during the day in deep crevices and under exfoliating granite slabs. The lyre snake is a rear-fanged snake with a venom that immobilizes small nocturnal lizards and rodents, and even bats when they are roosting. Unlike its deadly African relative, the boomslang, the lyre snake is not considered especially dangerous to people.

Two additional desert wildflowers of the mustard family (Brassicaceae) are "spectacle pod" (Dithyrea californica) and "desert candle" (Caulanthus inflatus). Spectacle pod is a small wildflower with seed pods (double silicles) that resemble pairs of miniature eye glasses or spectacles. It commonly grows in sandy desert riverbeds and along roadsides of the Colorado Desert. Any discussion of unusual desert mustards would be incomplete without mentioning the striking "desert candle" (Caulanthus inflatus). This annual wildflower is named for its inflated, tapering stem which resembles a candle. Other desert species of Caulanthus, such as C. cooperi and C. hallii have main stems that are much more slender. The "candles" of C. inflatus occasionally appear in profusion during years with sufficient rainfall, often along roadsides in the Mojave Desert and westward into California's San Joaquin Valley.