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Columbia cress, Columbia yellow-cress, Columbia yellowcress cress, Columbian yellowcress

Habit Perennials; (terrestrial or of wet habitat, not submerged, with creeping roots and adventitious stems); pilose or hirsute.
Stems

suberect or decumbent to prostrate, branched distally, 1–3.2(–4.1) dm, (pilose to hirsute).

Basal leaves

absent.

Cauline leaves

shortly petiolate or sessile;

blade oblanceolate to oblong, (lateral lobes oblong to ovate, often reaching midrib), 2.4–5.2 cm × 5–12 mm, base auriculate or not, margins sinuate to pinnatifid or (lateral lobes) entire or dentate, (surfaces pilose).

Racemes

elongated.

Flowers

sepals (persistent), ascending, oblong, 2–3.5 × 0.8–1.5 mm, (pilose);

petals yellow, oblanceolate to spatulate, 2.7–4.2 × 0.7–1.7 mm;

median filaments 2–3.5 mm;

anthers ovate, ca. 0.8 mm.

Fruiting pedicels

ascending, (subappressed to rachis), straight, (3–)4–10(–12) mm, (densely pilose).

Fruits

silicles, straight, subglobose to oblong ellipsoid, (1.5–)2.5–5.5(–7) × (1–)1.7–2.8(–3.5) mm;

valves densely pilose;

ovules 24–40 per ovary;

style 0.7–3.2 mm, (pilose).

Seeds

biseriate, yellowish brown, ovoid-globose, 0.7–0.9 mm, prominently colliculate.

Rorippa columbiae

Phenology Flowering Jun–Aug.
Habitat Stream banks, ditches, margins of lakes and ponds, meadows, roadsides, gravel bars, wet fields
Elevation 100-1600 m (300-5200 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
CA; OR; WA
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Source FNA vol. 7, p. 499.
Parent taxa Brassicaceae > tribe Cardamineae > Rorippa
Sibling taxa
R. alpina, R. amphibia, R. aquatica, R. austriaca, R. barbareifolia, R. calycina, R. crystallina, R. curvipes, R. curvisiliqua, R. dubia, R. indica, R. microtitis, R. palustris, R. ramosa, R. sessiliflora, R. sinuata, R. sphaerocarpa, R. subumbellata, R. sylvestris, R. tenerrima, R. teres
Synonyms Nasturtium sinuatum var. columbiae, Nasturtium columbiae, Nasturtium sinuatum var. pubescens, Radicula columbiae, R. calycina var. columbiae, R. sinuata var. pubescens
Name authority (S. Watson) Howell: Fl. N.W. Amer., 40. (1897)
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