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Nuttall's toothwort, slender toothwort

Pennsylvania bittercress, Quaker 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 annual or biennial, glabrous or hirsute.
Stems

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

(5)15–55(70) cm, glabrous above.

Basal leaves

withered by anthesis, not rosulate, 4–15 cm.

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.

(3)5–20(35), pinnately (5)7–13(19)-foliolate, sometimes pinnatisect; middle leaves 2–11 cm, bases not auriculate, often sparsely hirsute;

lateral leaflets orbicular; ovate, elliptic, or oblong, 4–25 mm wide;

terminal leaflets suborbicular, obovate, oblanceolate, or elliptic, 1.3–3(4) × 0.6–2.5 cm;

margins entire to repand or obscurely 3–5-lobed, subsessile or with petiolule to 10 mm; uppermost leaves narrower and with fewer lobes or leaflets.

Inflorescences

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

bracts 0, fruiting pedicels divaricate to ascending; (3)4–10(13) 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; (1)1.3–2.3 mm;

petals spatulate to oblanceolate, 2–3.5(4) × 0.8–1.5 mm, white, not clawed;

stamens 6;

ovules 40–80 per ovary;

styles 0.5–1 mm.

Fruits

25–56 × 2–2.3 mm, glabrous.

(14)17–27(32) × 0.8–1.1 mm, glabrous.

Seeds

oblong, 2–2.5 × 1.4–1.6 mm.

oblong to ovate, 0.7–1.1 × 0.5–0.8 mm.

2n

=32, 64.

Cardamine nuttallii

Cardamine pensylvanica

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.

Marshes, streams, swamps, seepage, lake margins, ditches, waste ground. Flowering Apr–Jun. 0–2100 m. BW, Casc, Col, CR, ECas, Sisk, WV. CA, ID, NV, WA; throughout most of Canada and US. Native.

Source Flora of Oregon, volume 2 draft
Ihsan Al-Shehbaz
Flora of Oregon, volume 2, page 467
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. bellidifolia, C. breweri, C. californica, C. cordifolia, C. flexuosa, C. hirsuta, C. holmgrenii, C. nuttallii, C. occidentalis, C. oligosperma, C. parviflora, C. pattersonii, C. penduliflora
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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