Duration: Annual

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Forb/Herb

General: Herbaceous annuals, biennials, or perennials, to 20 cm tall, stems scapose, herbage glabrous or sparsely hairy near the base, plants with pungent, watery sap.

Leaves: Alternate, basal only or sometimes with a single cauline leaf, linear-lanceolate to narrowly oblanceolate, margins entire or nearly so, surfaces sparsely ciliate and pubescent.

Flowers: Yellow fading to white, with 4 petals forming a cross, sepals 4, free, stamens 6 with 4 long and 2 short, ovary solitary and superior, generally 2-chambered with a septum connecting 2 parietal placentas, styles lacking or very short, stigmas entire or 2-lobed, flowers borne in elongated racemes at branch tips on pedicels 2-10 mm long, yellow and fading to white.

Fruits: Cylindrical siliques dehiscent into 2 valves and a septum, 5-12 mm long and 2-3 mm wide with glabrous surfaces. Seeds 1-many, to 1 mm long, light brown, in 2 rows per chamber.

Ecology: Found from 6,000-12,000 ft (1829-3658 m); flowering July.

Distribution: British Columbia south to Colorado, Arizona, and California.

Notes: Both Kearney and Peebles and McDougall report this species occurring in Arizona only at 6,000 feet or above. The flowers are yellow fading to white, and the capsules are glabrous with the seeds in 2 rows.

Ethnobotany: Specific uses for this species are unknown, but other species in the genus have uses.

Synonyms: Draba albertina, Draba crassifolia var. parryi, Draba parryi

Editor: LCrumbacher2012

Etymology: Draba comes from the Greek drabe for "sharp" or "acrid" and referring to the burning taste of the leaves which supposedly had a medicinal value as a poultice, and crassifolia means thick-leaved.