Caulanthus crassicaulis
Thick-stem wild cabbage, Thick-Stem Wild Cabbage
Family: Brassicaceae · Type: perennial · Native
Thick-stem wild cabbage is a California native perennial found in the White and Inyo Mountains and northern desert mountains in dry sagebrush scrub and pinyon/juniper woodland at elevations of 900 to 2,900 meters. Flowering from April to July, this plant produces creamy white to purple flowers 10 to 15 millimeters long with distinctive purple or brown petals. Growing with thick stems 20 to 100 centimeters tall that can expand up to 3 centimeters wide, it develops from a woody caudex with simple or minimally branched growth. Its basal leaves form a rosette 2 to 20 centimeters long, ranging from obovate to oblanceolate and varying from entire to dentate or pinnately lobed. The plant produces erect to ascending fruits 4.5 to 14 centimeters long with 98 to 126 small oblong seeds.
Habitat: dry sagebrush scrub, pinyon/juniper woodland
Bloom period: Apr-Jul
Elevation: 900-2900 m
Bioregions: W&I, n&c DMtns
California counties: Inyo, San Bernardino, Modoc
Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.