Al Schneider's Rocky Mountains Plant Descriptions

Alpine Smelowskia
Smelowskia americana
Mustard family (Brassicaceae)

Smelowskia is found high in the mountains above tree-line in rocky areas where it grows two-to-eight inches tall and typically spreads in colonies. Flowers are reminiscent of those of Candytuft and it is sometimes called "Fern-leaf Wild Candytuft." Fine hairs cover the leaves and stems giving them a soft green appearance. Seed pods are up to 1/3" long, arching, and purple. The plant also is found in Siberia, China, India.... The plant was first named in 1800 from collections made in Siberia. Timotheus Smelowsky was a Russian pharmacist and botanist from St. Petersburg. "Calycina" means "with ."


©2014 Barry Rice

Description

, , short to long stems clothed with dead leaf bases. Stems from 2-8" tall, hairy. to 2" and a bit more than 1/2" wide, divided. Stem leaves reduced upward. less than 1/3" long, to spreading, hairy. less than 1/8" long, often tinged purple, hairy; petals less than 1/3" long, white to cream commonly tinged pink to lavender, , spreading. to 1/3" long, slightly flattened, curved, purple.

Field Marks

Plants in patches in rocky areas, numerous white to lavender-white flowers, finely cut hairy leaves.

© Al Schneider

A perennial plant lives and blooms for many years.

pedicel -- The stem of a single flower.

ovate -- Oval, egg-shaped, with a tapering point.

caespitose -- Grass (or plants) growing in small dense clumps or tufts.

persistent -- When the leaves of a plant fail to fall off in the fall they are persistent. Flowers that stay around after fruiting would be persistent.

Usually green, sepals typically function as protection for the flower in bud, and often as support for the petals when in bloom.

ascending -- growing obliquely upward and usually curved.

calyx -- the sepals of a flower, typically forming a whorl that encloses the petals and forms a protective layer around a flower in bud.

fruit -- any seed-bearing structure in flowering plants. It is formed from the ovary after flowering.

pinnate -- A compound leaf with two rows of leaflets.

basal leaves -- a leaf that grows lowest on the stem of a plant.

alpine -- above the tree line. Thin soil, rocks, short growing season, frost, winter snow.