I climbed up the ridge behind our house yesterday, to the steep, dry clay slopes, and found this little rock cress blooming! I'm trying to determine if it's the Drummond rock cress or the Holboelli rock cress,, maybe a variation 'retrofracta'...anyone know?
rosemary
whatever it is, its lovely, rosemary and isn't it wonderful to contemplate spring
From the 4-petalled flower, I figured it must be a Cruciferae. I first thought of drabas or cardamines, but none that occur in your area seemed to fit. The inflorescence seems to be wrong for Arabis (rock cress) which have flowers in a raceme. (PS. The reference I'm using is Flora of Alberta, 2nd Ed., Moss and Packer; it's an excellent reference in general since so many of our plants have very broad ranges.)
So, how about Braya purpurascens:
http://www.miljostatus.no/upload/Purpurkarse%20MS%20STB.jpg
http://www.mun.ca/biology/delta/arcticf/_ca/www/babr.htm
This message was edited Apr 19, 2008 5:01 PM
