Boechera sparsiflora

Sicklepod rockcress

Family: Brassicaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Sicklepod rockcress is a California native perennial found in the Klamath Ranges, northern California Rocky Habitat, Cascade Range, northern Sierra Nevada Foothills, and Great Basin in rocky slopes and sagebrush steppe at elevations of 200 to 2,800 meters. Flowering from April to June, this plant produces lavender to purple flowers 7 to 13 millimeters long with distinctive petal shapes. Growing with slender stems 30 to 80 centimeters tall, emerging from a short-lived rosette with branching hairs near the base. Its leaves range from entire basal leaves 3 to 12 millimeters wide to cauline leaves with small basal lobes 3 to 10 millimeters long, covered in short multi-rayed hairs. The fruit develops as a spreading-ascending silique 5 to 13 centimeters long, containing 90 to 170 seeds in a single row.

Habitat: Rocky slopes, sandy soil, in sagebrush steppe, open conifer communities

Bloom period: Apr-Jun

Elevation: 200-2800 m

Bioregions: KR, NCoRH, CaR, n SNF, GB

California counties: Modoc, Siskiyou, Mono, Los Angeles, Lassen, Plumas, Monterey, Sierra, Shasta, Inyo, Mendocino, Placer, Nevada, San Bernardino, Trinity, Butte, Tehama, Mariposa, Humboldt, Fresno, Kern, Alpine, San Diego, Tuolumne, Santa Barbara, Ventura, Tulare, Sacramento, Alameda

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