Boechera stricta

Drummond's rockcress

Family: Brassicaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Drummond's rockcress is a California native perennial found in the Sierra Nevada and Great Basin in rocky slopes, gravelly soil, open conifer forest, and montane meadows at elevations of 1,800 to 3,400 meters. Flowering from May to August, this plant produces white to pale lavender flowers that are 5 to 11 millimeters long. Growing with slender stems 15 to 100 centimeters tall, it emerges from a short, generally non-woody caudex with stems rising from the center of a basal rosette. Its basal leaves are 2 to 10 millimeters wide, entire, and covered with short two-rayed hairs, while cauline leaves range from 6 to 52 with small basal lobes. The fruit develops as an erect, appressed silique 4 to 10 centimeters long, containing 110 to 216 seeds arranged in two rows.

Habitat: Rocky slopes, gravelly soil, in open conifer forest, montane meadows

Bloom period: May-Aug

Elevation: 1800-3400 m

Bioregions: SNH, GB

California counties: Inyo, Mono, Madera, Fresno, Tulare, El Dorado, Tuolumne, Mariposa, Placer, Siskiyou, Nevada, Alpine, Kern, Modoc, Trinity, Sierra, Sacramento, Amador

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