Biennials or perennials; caudex unbranched or with a root crown, often slender. Basal leaves: (petiole often hirsute); blade margins lyrate or lyrate-pinnatifid, terminal lobes distinct, (surfaces pubescent). Petals 6-8 mm. Fruits 0.8-1 mm wide; style 0.5-1 mm. 2n = 16, 32.

Flowering Apr-Jul. Cliffs, ledges, thickets, stream and river banks, woods, limestone crevices and bluffs, sandstone hills and outcrops, serpentine rocks and barrens, shale, talus, sand dunes; 0-1000 m; Alta., B.C., Man., N.W.T., Ont., Sask.; Alaska, Conn., Del., D.C., Ill., Ind., Iowa, Md., Mass., Mich., Minn., Miss., Mo., N.J., N.Y., N.C., Ohio, Pa., Tenn., Vt., Va., W.Va., Wis.

Found in very dry, sandy soil in black oak woods and fallow fields and on open wooded dunes and sandy, roadside knolls.

Erect or ascending biennial or perennial, 1-4 dm, branched from the usually hirsute base; basal lvs spatulate, 2-4 cm, entire to pinnately lobed; cauline lvs linear to narrowly spatulate, narrowed to the base, the lowest sometimes with a few short teeth or lobes; pet 3-8 mm; mature pedicels widely ascending, 6-15 mm, the fr continuing about the same direction as the pedicel, 2-4.5 cm נ1 mm, the valves 1-nerved to beyond the middle; seeds oblong to elliptic, wingless, 1 mm; 2n=16, 32. Dry woods and fields, especially in sandy soil; Vt. to Alas., s. to Va., Ky., and Mo., and in the mts. to Ga.; also in e. Asia. May-July.

Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

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