Cardamine blaisdellii

Perennials; usually glabrous throughout, rarely pilose. Rhizomes cylindrical, slender, 0.7–1.5 mm diam. Stems erect or ascending, unbranched, 0.5–2(–2.5) dm. Rhizomal leaves pinnately 5- or 7-foliolate, 2.5–12 cm (not fleshy), leaflets petiolulate; petiole 1.5–4(–9) cm; lateral leaflets similar to terminal, or smaller and margins usually toothed, rarely entire; terminal leaflet (petiolule 0.15–0.3 cm) blade suborbicular to broadly obovate, 0.4–1.5 cm × 2.5–14 mm, base obtuse to subcordate, margins 3–5-toothed, (apiculate). Cauline leaves 1–3, (3–)5-foliolate (alternate), petiolate, leaflets petiolulate or subsessile; petiole 0.2–2(–6.5) cm, base not auriculate; lateral leaflets similar to terminal; terminal leaflet subsessile or petiolulate (to 0.2 cm), blade obovate to oblanceolate, 0.5–1.5 cm × 3–10 mm, base cuneate, margins 3-toothed or entire. Racemes ebracteate. Fruiting pedicels erect to ascending, 0.7–22 mm. Flowers: sepals oblong, 2–3.5 × 2–2.5 mm, lateral pair slightly saccate basally; petals white, broadly obovate, 7–10 × 3–6 mm (clawed, apex rounded); filaments: median pairs 3–4 mm, lateral pair 2–3 mm; anthers oblong, 1–1.5 mm. Fruits linear, 1.6–4 cm × 1–1.3 mm; ovules 14–24 per ovary; style 0.7–3 mm. Seeds brown, oblong, ca. 1.5 × 1 mm. 2n = 28, 42.

Phenology: Flowering Jul–Aug.
Habitat: Moist streamsides, meadows, river gravel, mesic grounds, wet tundra, moist humus, scree slopes, calcareous fellfields
Elevation: 50-1000 m

Distribution

• Generated Map
• Legacy Map

Alaska, n, e Europe (Russian Far East, Siberia).

Discussion

Cardamine blaisdellii was treated by R. C. Rollins (1993) as a synonym of C. microphylla, but the morphological differences (see key) and molecular data (R. B. Jørgensen et al., 2008) clearly demonstrate that they are distinct.

Selected References

None.

Lower Taxa

None.