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

coast rock cress, rose rockcress

Habit Perennials; (caudex simple or branched, covered with persistent petiolar remains); sparsely to moderately pubescent, trichomes simple, forked-stalked, or rarely cruciform or 3-rayed, stalked, stellate. Annuals, biennials, or perennials [subshrubs]; eglandular.
Stems

simple or few from base (caudex), erect, unbranched or branched (few) distally, 0.6–2.5(–3) dm, (usually pubescent throughout, rarely subglabrate).

Basal leaves

petiole 0.5–3(–6) cm, (ciliate);

blade oblanceolate, spatulate, or obovate, (1.5–)2.1–3.5(–6) cm × (5–)8–20(–25) mm, margins entire or dentate, (ciliate), apex obtuse, surfaces pubescent or glabrous, trichomes simple and forked, sometimes mixed with 3- or 4-rayed stellate ones.

Cauline leaves

(2 or) 3–6 (or 7);

blade oblong or ovate, 1–2(–4) cm × (2–)4–10(–15) mm, base not auriculate, margins entire or dentate, (ciliate), apex obtuse, surfaces pubescent as basal leaves.

petiolate or sessile;

blade base auriculate or not, margins entire or dentate.

Trichomes

stalked or sessile, usually stellate, dendritic, cruciform, or forked, sometimes mixed with simple ones, rarely malpighiaceous.

Racemes

simple, (dense).

usually ebracteate, often elongated in fruit.

Flowers

sepals (purple), oblong, 5–7 × 1.5–2 mm, lateral pair saccate basally;

petals purple, spatulate or broadly so, (12–)14–18 × 4–7 mm, apex obtuse or rounded;

filaments 6–8 mm;

anthers narrowly oblong, 1.2–1.5 mm.

actinomorphic;

sepals erect, ascending, or spreading, lateral pair seldom saccate basally;

petals white, yellow, orange, pink, or purple, claw usually present, usually distinct;

filaments unappendaged, not winged;

pollen 3-colpate.

Fruiting pedicels

ascending to erect, (3–)5–10(–15) mm.

Fruits

erect or nearly so, slightly torulose, 2–4 cm × 2–3 mm;

valves each with prominent midvein extending full length or rarely to middle;

ovules 20–28 per ovary;

style 0.2–1(–1.5) mm.

silicles or siliques, usually dehiscent, very rarely indehiscent, unsegmented, latiseptate or terete;

ovules 2–70(–88)[–110+] per ovary;

style usually distinct, sometimes obsolete;

stigma usually entire, rarely 2-lobed.

Seeds

narrowly winged throughout, orbicular or suborbicular, 2–2.5 mm in diam.;

wing 0.2–0.4 mm wide (wider distally).

biseriate or uniseriate [rarely aseriate];

cotyledons accumbent.

2n

= 16.

Arabis blepharophylla

Brassicaceae tribe Arabideae

Phenology Flowering Mar–Apr.
Habitat Rocky hillsides and bluffs, grassy hillsides, slopes
Elevation 50-200 m (200-700 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
CA
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
North America; Mexico; South America; Europe; Asia; n Africa
Discussion

Arabis blepharophylla is an attractive species on the gradual increase in cultivation as an ornamental. It is recorded from Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Cruz, and Sonoma counties; most of the records are based on older collections.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Genera 8, species ca. 460 (4 genera, 139 species in the flora).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Source FNA vol. 7, p. 266. FNA vol. 7, p. 256.
Parent taxa Brassicaceae > tribe Arabideae > Arabis Brassicaceae
Sibling taxa
A. aculeolata, A. alpina, A. caucasica, A. crucisetosa, A. eschscholtziana, A. furcata, A. georgiana, A. mcdonaldiana, A. modesta, A. nuttallii, A. olympica, A. oregana, A. patens, A. pycnocarpa
Subordinate taxa
Name authority Hooker & Arnott: Bot. Beechey Voy., 321. (1838) de Candolle: Mém. Mus. Hist. Nat. 7: 229. (1821)
Web links