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

Columbia rockcress, few-flower rock-cress, fuzzy suncress, hairy-stem rock-cress, small-flower rockcress

Habit Perennials; short- to long-lived; apomictic; caudex sometimes woody.
Stems

usually 1 per caudex branch, arising from center of rosette near ground surface, (1.4–)3–11.2 dm, densely pubescent proximally, trichomes simple, 0.6–1.5 mm, mixed with stalked, 2- (or 3-)rayed ones, 0.2–0.4 mm, sparsely pubescent distally.

Basal leaves

blade oblanceolate, 3–10 mm wide, margins usually dentate, rarely entire, sometimes ciliate, trichomes (simple or branched), to 1 mm, surfaces densely pubescent, trichomes stalked, 2–5-rayed, 0.3–0.6 mm.

Cauline leaves

(8–)14–60, often concealing stem proximally;

blade auricles (1–)3–10 mm, surfaces of distalmost leaves glabrous or sparsely pubescent.

Racemes

17–60-flowered, usually unbranched.

Flowers

divaricate at anthesis;

sepals pubescent;

petals lavender to whitish, 5–8 × 1–2 mm, glabrous;

pollen spheroid.

Fruiting pedicels

horizontal to divaricate-descending, usually straight, rarely slightly recurved, 4–13 mm, pubescent, trichomes spreading, 2- or 3-rayed.

Fruits

horizontal, divaricate-descending or widely pendent, not appressed to rachis, not secund, curved, edges parallel, 5.5–10.5 cm × 1.5–2.2 mm;

valves glabrous;

ovules 80–162 per ovary;

style 0.05–0.5 mm.

Seeds

uniseriate, 1.4–1.8 × 1–1.4 mm;

wing continuous, 0.1–0.25 mm wide.

2n

= 21.

Boechera pauciflora

Phenology Flowering May–Jun.
Habitat Rocky soil in sagebrush areas, mountain shrub communities, edges of conifer forests
Elevation 600-2500 m (2000-8200 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
CA; ID; MT; NV; OR; UT; WA; WY; BC
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Morphological evidence suggests that Boechera pauciflora is an apomictic species that arose through hybridization between B. retrofracta and B. sparsiflora. Specimens of B. pauciflora are commonly identified as Arabis holboellii var. pinetorum (= B. pinetorum), a superficially similar species restricted to the northern Sierra Nevada and southern Cascade Range (see M. D. Windham and I. A. 2007 for detailed comparison).

Arabis elegans A. Nelson (1900), not Tineo & Lojacono (1886) is an illegitimate name, sometimes found in synonymy with Boechera pauciflora.

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

Source FNA vol. 7, p. 393.
Parent taxa Brassicaceae > tribe Boechereae > Boechera
Sibling taxa
B. acutina, B. arcuata, B. atrorubens, B. bodiensis, B. breweri, B. burkii, B. calderi, B. californica, B. canadensis, B. cascadensis, B. cobrensis, B. collinsii, B. consanguinea, B. constancei, B. covillei, B. crandallii, B. cusickii, B. davidsonii, B. dentata, B. depauperata, B. dispar, B. divaricarpa, B. drepanoloba, B. duchesnensis, B. elkoensis, B. evadens, B. falcatoria, B. falcifructa, B. fecunda, B. fendleri, B. fernaldiana, B. formosa, B. fructicosa, B. glareosa, B. glaucovalvula, B. goodrichii, B. gracilenta, B. gracilipes, B. grahamii, B. gunnisoniana, B. harrisonii, B. hastatula, B. hoffmannii, B. holboellii, B. horizontalis, B. howellii, B. inyoensis, B. johnstonii, B. koehleri, B. laevigata, B. languida, B. lasiocarpa, B. lemmonii, B. lignifera, B. lincolnensis, B. lyallii, B. macounii, B. microphylla, B. missouriensis, B. nevadensis, B. ophira, B. oxylobula, B. paddoensis, B. pallidifolia, B. parishii, B. paupercula, B. peirsonii, B. pendulina, B. pendulocarpa, B. perennans, B. perstellata, B. pinetorum, B. pinzliae, B. platysperma, B. polyantha, B. porphyrea, B. pratincola, B. puberula, B. pulchra, B. pusilla, B. pygmaea, B. quebecensis, B. rectissima, B. repanda, B. retrofracta, B. rigidissima, B. rollei, B. rollinsiorum, B. rubicundula, B. saximontana, B. schistacea, B. serotina, B. serpenticola, B. shevockii, B. shockleyi, B. sparsiflora, B. spatifolia, B. stricta, B. subpinnatifida, B. suffrutescens, B. texana, B. tiehmii, B. tularensis, B. ultra-alsa, B. villosa, B. williamsii, B. xylopoda, B. yorkii
Synonyms Sisymbrium pauciflorum, Arabis arcuata var. subvillosa, Arabis columbiana, Arabis perelegans, Arabis sparsiflora var. columbiana, Arabis sparsiflora var. subvillosa, B. sparsiflora var. subvillosa
Name authority (Nuttall) Windham & Al-Shehbaz: Harvard Pap. Bot. 11: 268. (2007)
Web links