Boechera arcuata

Arching rockcress

Family: Brassicaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Arching rockcress is a California native perennial found in southern Sierra Nevada foothills, southern Coast Ranges, southern California Coast, and Transverse Ranges in rocky hillsides, cliffs, pine forests, and chaparral at elevations of 300 to 2,000 meters. Flowering from March to June, this plant produces purple flowers 9 to 14 millimeters long with petals 2 to 4 millimeters wide. Growing with slender stems 30 to 80 centimeters tall emerging from a slightly woody base, it develops from a basal rosette with simple, short-stalked branching hairs. Its basal leaves are 2 to 12 millimeters wide, generally entire, with short-stalked 2 to 5-rayed hairs, while cauline leaves feature small basal lobes 2 to 6 millimeters long. The fruit develops as a spreading, arching silique 6 to 13 centimeters long and 1.5 to 2.2 millimeters wide, often glabrous or with few hairs.

Habitat: Rocky hillsides, cliffs, in pine forest, chaparral

Bloom period: Mar-Jun

Elevation: 300-2000 m

Bioregions: SNF, s SCoR, SCo, TR.

California counties: Los Angeles, Fresno, Kern, Santa Barbara, Ventura, Mariposa, San Bernardino, Tulare, Calaveras, Plumas, Butte, Nevada, Tuolumne, Mono, El Dorado, Madera, Sutter, San Diego, Siskiyou, Sacramento, Inyo, Sierra, Placer, Shasta, Stanislaus, Riverside, San Luis Obispo, Glenn, Santa Clara, Napa

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.