Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses

WEDGE-LEAF DRABA

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Draba cuneifolia Nutt.

Konza Prairie, Riley County, Kansas

Annual or winter annual

Height: 4-10 inches

Family: Brassicaceae - Mustard Family

Flowering Period: March, April

Also Called:

Wedge-leaved whitlow-grass.

Stems:

Erect, simple or branched at base, stiff-hairy with spreading, stalked, branched pubescence.

Leaves:

Basal, simple, narrowly egg-shaped to wedge-shaped, .5 to 1.25 inch long, to .5 inch wide, grayish, stiff-hairy; margins coarsely toothed toward tips; tips blunt; leaves near stem bases.

Inflorescences:

Racemes, dense, elongating at maturity, to 2 to 4 inches.

Flowers:

4-parted, to 1/4 inch wide; stalks less than 1/3 inch long, ascending or spreading, pubescent; sepals 4, oblong-ovate to linear, less than 1/10 inch long; tips blunt; petals 4, usually about 1/6 inch long, white; tips notched.

Fruits:

Pods, elliptic to linear-oblong, 1/3 to 2/3 inch long, flat, minutely hairy or glabrous; seeds 28-40, tiny, in 2 to several rows.

Habitat:

Dry rocky ledges and rocky open woods, in sandy or limestone soils.

Distribution:

East 1/2 of Kansas.

Comments:

Draba species were thought to be a remedy for a fingernail or hoof infection called whitlow, which gives it the common name "wedge-leaved whitlow-grass".

Wedge-leaf draba flowers