Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses

TOOTHED ROCKCRESS

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Boechera dentata (Raf. ) Al-Shehbaz

[=Arabis shortii (Fernald ) Gleason]

Johnson County, Kansas

Biennial

Height: 8-24 inches

Family: Brassicaceae - Mustard Family

Flowering Period: April, May

Stems:

2-10, pubescent below, glabrous or sparsely pubescent above, hairs branched.

Leaves:

Basal leaves simple; petiole 2/5 to 2.4 inches; blade obovate to oblanceolate, 1/6 to 3/5 inch long, 2/5 to 2 inches wide, margins dentate, surfaces sparsely pubescent with simple or branched hairs. Cauline leaves 4-20, simple; petiole absent or short; blade obovate to oblanceolate or lanceolate, 2/5 to 2.4 inches long, 1/5 to 1 inch wide, base usually auriculate, margins dentate to sinuate, lower surface sparsely to densely pubescent with branched hairs, upper surface glabrous or sparsely pubescent with simple hairs and sometimes a few branched hairs.

Inflorescences:

Racemes, terminal, 10-70-flowered. Fruiting pedicels spreading to ascending, 1/25 to 1/4 inch.

Flowers:

Sepals 4, 1/16 to 1/10 inch; petals 4, white or cream-colored, 1/12 to 1/7 inch long, less than 1/25 inch wide; stamens 6, 4 long stamens barely exserted, 2 short stamens included.

Fruits:

Siliques usually spreading-ascending, some spreading-descending, 1/2 to 1.6 inches; seeds brown, orbicular to oblong, tiny, smooth, not winged.

Habitat:

Maple-basswood and floodplain forests, mesic oak-hickory forests

Distribution:

East 1/3 of Kansas

Origin:

Native

Comments:

Named for Danish botanist Tyge Wittrock Boecher.

Toothed rock cress flowers