Wood whitlow-grass is a tiny with pinhead-sized yellow flowers that blooms in spring on dry, open ground. It grows across the cooler parts of the Northern Hemisphere, including the northern US, and is small enough to walk past without noticing. It's also called yellow whitlow-grass or woodland draba.
Appearance
- Growth form
- Usually 6–12 in (15–30 cm) tall, and only a few inches when it first starts blooming.
- Leaves
- Small oval to spoon-shaped leaves, up to 1 in (2.5 cm) long, densely hairy and often with a few teeth. Some leaves grow along the stem.
- Flowers
- Flowers less than 1/8 in (3 mm) across, with 4 yellow petals notched at the tip, in a cluster that lengthens as it blooms.
- Flowering time
- April–May in Minnesota
- Fruit
- Flat, oblong pods about 1/3 in (8 mm) long on stalks that spread and lengthen to an inch or more.
Look-alikes
Spring whitlow-grassDraba verna
Spring whitlow-grass has white petals split halfway or more, so each flower can look 8-petaled, and its leaves are all at the base. Wood whitlow-grass has yellow, shallowly notched petals and leaves along the stem.
Why they get mixed upBoth are tiny early-spring mustards with flat oblong pods.
Where it lives
- Typical habitats
- Dry fields
- Open woods
- Rock outcrops
- Roadsides
- Range
- Found around the subarctic and temperate Northern Hemisphere. In the US it is listed as native in Alaska, the western and Rocky Mountain states, and the northern Plains and Great Lakes states (from Washington and California east to the Dakotas, Iowa, and Michigan), though some local floras question whether it is native in places, such as parts of Colorado.
- Preferred conditions
- Sun to part shade on sandy or rocky soil, often where taller plants are sparse.
- Flowering
Flowers Apr–May
Flowers Apr–May
Conservation
- IUCN Red List
- NENot EvaluatedNot yet assessed
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