Boechera californica

California rockcress

Family: Brassicaceae · Type: perennial · Native

California rockcress is a California native perennial found in central coastal and southwestern California bioregions in rocky slopes and gravelly soil within chaparral and oak woodland at elevations of 350 to 2,300 meters. Flowering from March to June, this plant produces purple to pink flowers with petals 9 to 14 millimeters long in dense clusters of 30 to 120 blooms. Growing with erect stems over 35 centimeters tall emerging from a woody caudex, it has distinctive short-stalked hairs with 2 to 4 rays on its lower stems. Its basal leaves are 3 to 13 millimeters wide, entire or minutely dentate, with short-stalked 4 to 8-rayed hairs covering the surface. The fruit develops as a long, pendulous pod 6 to 12 centimeters in length, containing 140 to 180 seeds arranged in a single row.

Habitat: Rocky slopes, gravelly soil, in chaparral, oak woodland

Bloom period: Mar-Jun

Elevation: 350-2300 m

Bioregions: CCo, SW

California counties: San Bernardino, Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego, Kern, Tulare, Ventura, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, El Dorado, Modoc

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