Whitlowgrass
Draba cuneifolia
Photographed in Gila Bend Mountains, Maricopa Co., Arizona. 17 Feb. 2008. Pencil point at lower right for scale.
ANNUAL: A diminutive (mostly 10 to 20 cm tall), ephemeral annual of springtime in the Sonoran
Desert growing in response to adequate winter-spring rains.
LEAVES: Leaves are almost entirely basal, have fairly stiff, short
hairs. Wedge-shaped and usually with a few shallow teeth along the margin.
FLOWERS: Four, bilobed, white petals on each of a few to many flowers on a stalk
rising above the basal rosette of leaves. The stalk is conspicuously
short-hirsute.
RANGE: Frequent throughout the Sonoran Desert in Arizona and across the
southern tier of the United States. In the Sonoran Desert it favors sandy soils
as along washes.
FRUIT: A flattened capsule with many small seeds.
UNARMED