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elegant rockcress, sickle-pod rock-cress, slender rockcress, stretching suncress

Habit Biennials or perennials; short-lived; sexual; caudex present or absent.
Stems

usually 1 per caudex branch, arising from center of rosette near ground surface, 3–8 dm, densely pubescent proximally, trichomes simple mixed with fewer short-stalked, 2-rayed ones, 0.4–1.5 mm, glabrous or sparsely pubescent distally.

Basal leaves

blade oblanceolate or linear-oblanceolate, 3–12 mm wide, margins usually entire, rarely dentate, ciliate proximally, trichomes (usually simple), to 1 mm, surfaces densely pubescent, trichomes short-stalked, 2–5-rayed, 0.3–0.8 mm.

Cauline leaves

(9–)15–35, often concealing stem proximally;

blade auricles 3–10 mm, surfaces of distalmost leaves glabrous, sometimes margins ciliate.

Racemes

12–50-flowered, usually unbranched.

Flowers

ascending at anthesis;

sepals sparsely pubescent;

petals usually lavender to purple, rarely white, 7–13 × 2–5 mm, glabrous;

pollen ellipsoid.

Fruiting pedicels

usually ascending, rarely almost horizontal, straight or slightly recurved, 3–10(–18) mm, usually pubescent, rarely glabrous, trichomes spreading, usually simple.

Fruits

usually ascending, rarely almost horizontal, not appressed to rachis, not secund, usually curved, edges parallel, 5–13 cm × 1.7–2 mm;

valves glabrous;

ovules 90–170 per ovary;

style 0.05–0.3 mm.

Seeds

uniseriate, 1.5–2 × 1–1.5 mm;

wing continuous, 0.1–0.2 mm wide.

2n

= 14.

Boechera sparsiflora

Phenology Flowering Apr–Jun.
Habitat Rocky slopes, clay hills, sandy soil in sagebrush and mountain shrub communities, meadows, and open conifer forests
Elevation 400-2800 m (1300-9200 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
CA; ID; NV; OR; UT; WA; BC
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

As circumscribed by R. C. Rollins (1993), Boechera sparsiflora included six varieties encompassing three sexual diploids and a number of apomictic hybrids. The most distinctive of those elements are recognized here as the separate species B. arcuata, B. atrorubens, B. californica, and B. pauciflora. The narrow circumscription of B. sparsiflora adopted here includes only sexual diploids. It is distinguished from other taxa previously assigned to it by having proximal stems densely pubescent with predominantly simple (some 2-rayed) trichomes to 1.5 mm, usually glabrous distal stems, and ascending fruiting pedicels with spreading, usually simple trichomes (rarely glabrous).

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

Source FNA vol. 7, p. 407.
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. pauciflora, 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. 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 Arabis sparsiflora, Arabis arcoidea, Arabis campyloloba, Arabis peramoena, Arabis polytricha, Arabis sparsiflora var. peramoena
Name authority (Nuttall) Dorn: Vasc. Pl. Wyoming ed. 3, 376. (2001)
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