General: Biennial or short-lived perennial herb from a simple or branched stem-base; stems 1-several, simple or branched, 0.1-1.0 m tall, hairy basally, usually glabrous above.
Leaves: Basal leaves in a prominent rosette, oblanceolate, 1-5 cm long, 2-5 mm wide, narrowed to slender stalk, usually densely grey-hairy; stem leaves 1-3 cm long, 2-7 mm wide, unstalked, ear-like at the bases, narrowly oblong to linear, hairy.
Flowers: Racemes many-flowered, greatly elongated in fruit; petals white to purple, 6-10 mm long; sepals not bulging on one side at the base.
Fruits: Siliques, drooping or directed downward due to abruptly bent stalks, 3-6 cm long, 1.5-2 mm wide, straight or slightly curved; seeds in 1 row, about 2 mm long, with very narrow wings less than 0.5 mm wide.
Mesic to dry rocky slopes, gravelly areas, shrublands and grasslands in the steppe to alpine zones; var. pinetorum rare in S BC, var. secunda infrequent in C and S BC east of the Coast-Cascade Mountains, var. retrofracta common throughout BC east of the Coast-Cascade Mountains (probably introduced on the coast), var. consanguinea infrequent throughout BC east of the Coast-Cascade Mountains; N to AK, YT and NT, E to PQ and ON and S to ND, SD, WY, UT, NV and CA; Greenland.
The table below shows the species-specific information calculated from original data (BEC database) provided by the BC Ministry of Forests and Range. (Updated August, 2013)
