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Nuttall's toothwort, slender toothwort

Habit Plants perennial, glabrous or pubescent; rhizomes slender, tuberous, segmented, producing fragile segments, ovoid, oblong, or cylindrical, 2–5 mm in diameter, nodes fleshy.
Stems

erect, 0.5–2(3) dm; simple, bases above ground much wider than attachment to rhizome.

Rhizomal leaves

simple or 3(5)-foliolate; (3)4–20(25) cm;

blades or terminal leaflets reniform, suborbicular; ovate, or oblong; (0.9)1.3–4(5.2) × (0.8)1.2–5(7) cm, often with purple spots, bases cordate to obtuse;

margins apiculate-dentate or 5–7-lobed.

Cauline leaves

1–3, pinnately or palmately compound, 3(5)-foliolate, bases not auriculate;

terminal leaflets ovate, oblong, or linear; (0.5)1–3.5(6) cm;

lateral leaflets smaller; entire, dentate, or lobed.

Inflorescences

bracts 0, fruiting pedicels ascending to divaricate, 1–3.5 cm.

Flowers

sepals erect, oblong, 3.5–5 mm;

lateral pair saccate;

petals obovate, 10–15 × 4–7.5 mm, purple to pale pink, rarely white, not clawed;

tips rounded;

ovules 8–16 per ovary;

styles 4–8 mm.

Fruits

25–56 × 2–2.3 mm, glabrous.

Seeds

oblong, 2–2.5 × 1.4–1.6 mm.

Cardamine nuttallii

Distribution
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Damp woods, shaded bottomlands and hillsides, mossy slopes, streamsides. Flowering Mar–Jul. 0–2000 m. Casc, Col, CR, ECas, Est, Sisk, WV. CA, WA; north to British Columbia. Native.

Source Flora of Oregon, volume 2 draft
Ihsan Al-Shehbaz
Sibling taxa
C. angulata, C. bellidifolia, C. breweri, C. californica, C. cordifolia, C. flexuosa, C. hirsuta, C. holmgrenii, C. occidentalis, C. oligosperma, C. parviflora, C. pattersonii, C. penduliflora, C. pensylvanica
Synonyms Cardamine nuttallii var. covilleana, Cardamine nuttallii var. dissecta, Cardamine nuttallii var. gemmata, Cardamine nuttallii var. nuttallii, Cardamine pulcherrima, Cardamine pulcherrima var. pulcherrima, Cardamine pulcherrima var. tenella, Dentaria gemmata, Dentaria tenella, Dentaria tenella var. pulcherrima, Dentaria tenella var. quercetorum, Dentaria tenella var. tenella
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