Boechera glaucovalvula

Bluepod rockcress

Family: Brassicaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Bluepod rockcress is a California native perennial found in the eastern Sierra Nevada and Mojave Desert bioregions on rocky slopes and gravelly soil under desert shrubs at elevations of 600 to 2,000 meters. Flowering from March to April, this plant produces light purple to lavender flowers 6 to 9 millimeters long with petals 1.5 to 2.5 millimeters wide. Growing with slender stems 10 to 45 centimeters tall, it emerges from a basal rosette with short, branched hairs. Its basal leaves are 2 to 6 millimeters wide, entire and covered with short-stalked, 4 to 8-rayed hairs. The fruit is a distinctive reflexed silique 1.8 to 4.5 centimeters long, often curved at the base and glabrous.

Habitat: Rocky slopes, gravelly soil, generally under desert shrubs

Bloom period: Mar-Apr

Elevation: 600-2000 m

Bioregions: SNE, DMoj

California counties: San Bernardino, Riverside, Inyo, Mono

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