Tropidocarpum capparideum

Caper-fruited tropidocarpum

Family: Brassicaceae · Type: annual · Native

Conservation status: CNPS 1B.1

Caper-fruited tropidocarpum is a rare (CNPS 1B.1) California native annual found in the northwestern San Joaquin Valley and southern Coastal Ranges on alkaline soils and low hills at elevations below 400 meters. Flowering from March to April, this plant produces yellow flowers, occasionally tinged with purple, that are 3 to 5 millimeters long and spoon-shaped. Growing 15 to 70 centimeters tall with ascending stems, it develops distinctive branching with proximal leaves having 3 to 6 lateral leaf lobes. Its leaves are 1.2 to 7 centimeters long, with entire lateral lobes arranged in distinctive pairs along the stem. The fruit develops as an oblong silique 9 to 20 millimeters long, containing 25 to 40 small oblong seeds.

Habitat: Alkaline soils, low hills, valleys

Bloom period: Mar-Apr

Elevation: < 400 m

Bioregions: nw SnJV, SCoRO.

California counties: Contra Costa, Fresno, Monterey, Alameda, San Luis Obispo, San Joaquin

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