Whitlowgrass

Draba cuneifolia

 
Photo by Michael Plagens also hosted at Wikimedia

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

Brassicaceae -- Mustard Family

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More Information:


Sonoran Desert Field Guide
Sonoran Desert Places
Sonoran Desert Naturalist Home Page


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Copyright Michael J. Plagens, page created 5 March 2006,
updated 01 Apr. 2018.