Rorippa subumbellata

Tahoe yellow cress, Tahoe Yellow Cress

Family: Brassicaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Conservation status: CNPS 1B.1

Tahoe yellow cress is a rare (CNPS 1B.1) California native perennial found in the northern Sierra Nevada Mountains, specifically the Lake Tahoe Basin, on sandy lake margins at elevations of 1,800 to 2,500 meters. Flowering from June to September, this plant produces small white to yellow flowers in umbel-like clusters approximately 2 to 3.5 millimeters wide. Growing with decumbent, many-branched stems 5 to 25 centimeters tall, it has a rhizomatous root system and spreads across sandy lake edges. Its leaves are broadly oblanceolate to oblong, with pinnately lobed margins and lateral lobes that are generally entire, measuring 1 to 3.2 centimeters long. The fruit is a nearly spheric to broadly oblong silicle 3 to 5.5 millimeters long, containing 30 to 44 slightly angled seeds.

Habitat: Sandy lake margins

Bloom period: Jun-Sep

Elevation: 1800-2500 m

Bioregions: n SNH (Lake Tahoe Basin)

California counties: El Dorado, Placer, Alpine

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