Draba subumbellata

Mound draba

Family: Brassicaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Conservation status: CNPS 4.3

Mound draba is a native perennial herb ranked 4.3 by CNPS, found in the southern Sierra Nevada eastern slopes, northwestern Inyo County, and northern White and Inyo Mountains in Mono County, inhabiting rocky talus areas at elevations of 3,300 to 4,100 meters. Flowering from July to August, this plant produces small yellow flowers in compact umbel-like clusters with 2 to 5 blooms. Growing as a tufted, cushion-forming plant with tiny unbranched stems just 1 to 2.5 centimeters tall, it forms dense gray-haired, tree-like clumps with multiple branching rays. Its leaves are small, measuring 1.5 to 4 millimeters long, obovate to widely oblong, and covered in short, tree-like hairs that give the plant a distinctive silvery-gray appearance. The fruit is a small, inflated ovoid pod 2 to 5 millimeters long, bearing 6 to 12 oblong seeds.

Habitat: Talus, among rocks

Bloom period: Jul-Aug

Elevation: 3300-4100 m

Bioregions: s SNH (e slope, nw Inyo Co.), n W&ampI (White Mtns, Mono Co.).

California counties: Inyo, Mono

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