Drummond's Rockcress Boechera stricta Mustard family (Brassicaceae)
Drummond's Rockcress is a very slender plant that easily escapes notice. Stem leaves are small and usually pressed upward against the stem and flowers are small with quiet colors, but when the plant goes to seed it gains much more attention with its mass of vertical and very long seed pods. Plants continue to and flower for many weeks. "Drummondii" honors botanist and naturalist Thomas Drummond who first collected the seeds of this plant in the northern Rockies. "Stricta" refers to the "strict" upright posture of the stem and the seed pods.
or short-lived , stems to nearly 3', solitary or 2 to several from (woody base of non-woody ), usually or some hairs at base. to 3" long, wider toward tips, , nearly . Stem leaves usually longer than (distance between point of leaf attachment), numerous, to 2" long, . less than 1/4" long, petals less than 1/2" long, white to pink. Seed pods from 1 1/2-4" long, erect and close to stem in bunches.
An entire leaf has smooth edges. Not toothed or lobed.
A perennial plant lives and blooms for many years.
Usually green, sepals typically function as protection for the flower in bud,
and often as support for the petals when in bloom.
A clasping leaf suroundes part of all of the stem.
biennial -- a plant which lives for two years, producing a basal rosette of leaves
the first year and a full plant, flower, and seed the second year followed by
the death of the entire plant at the end of the second year.
basal leaves -- a leaf that grows lowest on the stem of a plant.
appressed -- pressed close or flat against another surface as in hairs appressed against a stem.
elongate -- long and thin, slender.
caudex -- The woody stem base of some herbaceous perennials.
The stem between two of the nodes from which leaves emerge.
glabrous -- smooth, glossy, having no bristles or hair-like structures. Bald.
