Flora of North America species comparison

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

Braya humilis subsp. porsildii

Braya humilis subsp. humilis
Photo is of parent taxon

Porsild's dwarf braya
Photo is of parent taxon

dwarf braya
Stems

ascending to erect or, rarely, decumbent, usually unbranched, 0.3–1.7(–2.5) dm, densely pubescent.

ascending to erect, branched or unbranched, 0.4–3.3 dm, sparsely to moderately pubescent.
Leaves

blade margins usually entire, sometimes weakly sinuate-dentate, surfaces densely pubescent.

blade margins sinuate-dentate, shallowly pinnatifid, or entire, surfaces moderately pubescent.
Flowers

petals white, 4.4–6.9 × (1.9–)2.3–4.2 mm.

petals white, pink, or purple, 2.5–6.9(–7.5) × (0.7–)0.9–4(–4.2) mm.
Fruits

often abortive, somewhat torulose, 0.8–1.2 mm wide when fully developed;

septum not fenestrate or split longitudinally.

usually fertile and fully developed, somewhat torulose, 0.6–1.2(–1.3) mm wide;

septum not fenestrate or split longitudinally.
2n

= 28.

= 28, 42, 56, 70.

Braya humilis subsp. porsildii

Braya humilis subsp. humilis
Phenology Flowering May–Jul. Flowering May–Jul.
Habitat Dry alpine scree slopes, glacial moraines, and gravel bars, often on limestone gravels and soils Sandy, gravelly soil along streams, lakeshores, roadsides, moraines, open stony slopes, dolomite cliffs and slopes, limestone ledges, solifluction soils
Elevation 500-3000 m (1600-9800 ft) 0-4000 m (0-13100 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AB; BC; NT
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
AK; CO; MI; MT; VT; WY; AB; BC; MB; NF; NT; NU; ON; QC; YT; Greenland; e Asia; c Asia
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Subspecies maccallae and porsildii share the large flowers, high percentage of abortive fruits, and leaf margins mostly entire, but they differ in indumentum and habitats.

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

Subspecies humilis is extremely variable morphologically. In a general way, morphological form correlates with ploidy level, e.g., tetraploids, octoploids, and decaploids tend to be short in stature with small leaves. Hexaploids are less predictable. They range from short plants with small leaves to large, robust, multi-branched plants with large, pinnatifid leaves. Attempting to segregate most morphological forms of Braya humilis into logical infraspecific taxa is an exercise in futility. Populations that appear distinctive in the field almost always blur imperceptibly into the larger subsp. humilis continuum when compared with other populations from across the range of distribution. Subspecies humilis is broadly distributed on calcareous substrates in arctic, subarctic, alpine, and boreal regions of North America and Asia.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 7, p. 550. FNA vol. 7, p. 549.
Parent taxa Brassicaceae > tribe Euclidieae > Braya > Braya humilis Brassicaceae > tribe Euclidieae > Braya > Braya humilis
Sibling taxa
B. humilis subsp. ellesmerensis, B. humilis subsp. humilis, B. humilis subsp. maccallae
B. humilis subsp. ellesmerensis, B. humilis subsp. maccallae, B. humilis subsp. porsildii
Synonyms Arabidopsis novae-angliae, B. humilis var. abbei, B. humilis subsp. arctica, B. humilis var. arctica, B. humilis var. interior, B. humilis var. laurentiana, B. humilis var. leiocarpa, B. humilis var. novae-angliae, B. humilis subsp. richardsonii, B. humilis subsp. ventosa, B. humilis var. ventosa, B. intermedia, B. novae-angliae, B. novae-angliae subsp. abbei, B. novae-angliae var. interior, B. novae-angliae var. laurentiana, B. novae-angliae subsp. ventosa, B. richardsonii, Pilosella novae-angliae, Pilosella richardsonii, Torularia humilis subsp. arctica
Name authority J. G. Harris: Novon 16: 348. (2006) unknown
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



Type/paste one or more Latin names into the boxes above; matching taxa will show up below the box as you type. You can use the up/down arrow keys to move through the list.

(If the plant you're looking for doesn't show up in the auto-complete list, that means it either isn't described in Flora of North America yet, or it's listed under a synonym. And please note that Flora of North America is still missing several plant families, including Apiaceae, Boraginaceae, and Polemoniaceae.)

Choose a data source: Flora of North America

The species comparison tool is brought to you by:
Northwest Wildflowers