Draba oligosperma

Few seeded draba

Family: Brassicaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Few seeded draba is a California native perennial found in the Sierra Nevada, northern eastern Sierra, and White and Inyo Mountains in alpine barrens, dry slopes, and tundra at elevations of 2,000 to 3,900 meters. Flowering from May to August, this plant produces bright yellow flowers 2.5 to 4 millimeters long in compact clusters of 4 to 12 blooms. Growing as a tufted, cushion-forming herb with unbranched stems 2 to 6 centimeters tall, it forms dense, low-growing mats in harsh alpine environments. Its leaves are small and linear, 4 to 11 millimeters long, covered in distinctive comb-like, star-shaped hairs with branches that point toward the leaf tips. The fruit is a small, inflated ovoid pod 3 to 6 millimeters long, containing 6 to 12 compact seeds.

Habitat: Common. Alpine barrens, dry slopes, tundra

Bloom period: May-Aug

Elevation: 2000-3900 m

Bioregions: SNH, n SNE, W&ampI

California counties: Inyo, Mono, Fresno, Tuolumne, Madera, El Dorado, Alpine

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