The green links below add additional plants to the comparison table. Blue links lead to other Web sites.
enable glossary links

Nuttall's toothwort, slender toothwort

alpine bittercress

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

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

1–8(14) cm, subscapose.

Basal leaves

simple, rosulate; (0.6)1.2–5(7) cm;

blades ovate to oblong, rarely oblanceolate to obovate; (0.4)0.8–1.7(2.5) × (0.2)5–1(1.6) cm, bases cuneate to obtuse;

margins entire or obtusely small-toothed.

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.

absent or 1(2); simple, bases not auriculate.

Inflorescences

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

bracts 0, fruiting pedicels ascending to erect, 3–6(8) mm.

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.

sepals oblong, 2–3(4) mm; erect;

lateral pair not saccate;

petals white, oblanceolate, 4–5.5(7) × 1.3–2(2.5) mm, not clawed;

tips rounded or emarginate;

ovules 8–18 per ovary;

styles 0.5–3 mm.

Fruits

25–56 × 2–2.3 mm, glabrous.

(8)13–28(37) × 1.3–2 mm, glabrous.

Seeds

oblong, 2–2.5 × 1.4–1.6 mm.

oblong, 1.5–2 × 0.9–1.2 mm.

2n

=16.

Cardamine nuttallii

Cardamine bellidifolia

Distribution
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
[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.

Marshy grounds, cliffs, talus slopes, moist rock crevices, al­pine brooks. Flowering Jun–Sep. 1600–3200 m. BW, Casc. CA, WA; northern and western North America, Greenland; Asia, Europe. Native.

Source Flora of Oregon, volume 2 draft
Ihsan Al-Shehbaz
Flora of Oregon, volume 2, page 464
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
C. angulata, C. breweri, C. californica, C. cordifolia, C. flexuosa, C. hirsuta, C. holmgrenii, C. nuttallii, 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 Cardamine bellidifolia var. pachyphylla
Web links