Caulanthus major

Slender wild cabbage

Family: Brassicaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Conservation status: CNPS 4.3

Slender wild cabbage is a California native perennial ranked 4.3 by CNPS, found in northern Sierra Nevada Mountains in Alpine County, southern Sierra Nevada Borderlands, southern Sierra Boundary, southern Modoc Plateau, and eastern Desert Mountains including Providence and New York Mountains on dry, generally rocky slopes in sagebrush and pinyon/juniper woodland at elevations of 1,500 to 3,200 meters. Flowering from May to July, this plant produces creamy white to purple flowers with distinctive purple petals 11 to 17 millimeters long. Growing with erect stems 20 to 100 centimeters tall that are simple or branched toward the top, it has a woody base with persistent basal rosette leaves. Its leaves range from entire to dentate or pinnately lobed, with basal blades 1 to 14 centimeters long and upper leaves reduced to narrow, linear shapes. The elongated fruit is erect to ascending, 4.5 to 12 centimeters long, containing 46 to 58 oblong seeds two to 3.5 millimeters in size.

Habitat: +- dry, generally rocky slopes, sagebrush, pinyon/juniper woodland

Bloom period: May-Jul

Elevation: 1500-3200 m

Bioregions: n SNH (Alpine Co.), SnGb, SnBr, s MP, e DMtns (Providence, New York mtns)

California counties: Riverside, San Bernardino, Los Angeles, Lassen, Alpine, Plumas, Mono, Inyo, Humboldt

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