Was wondering if anyone can help me with this one - I'm stumped.
I found a bunch of these up in Golden Gate Canyon last weekend. The plant is 3-4" high with thick purplish smooth stems. Leaves are dark green with a purplish tinge, thick and waxy (almost like a succulent), alternating sessile, ovate, sinuate or dentate (few, rounded teeth), and pinnate. Flowers are clustered as in the picture, but the cluster appears to loosen as the flowers mature; in case it's not clear, the flowers open to a 4-petaled cruciform shape.
Wow. 69 views and no takers. BTW, the image is larger than life-size on a standard screen; the actual flower clusters were probably half the size of this image on a 96dpi screen.
Good try; the flowers look right, but the leaves are wrong. But you've got the Family right; it's a Mustard of some sort... A bit of searching from your suggestion came up with an interesting possibility: Alpine Pennycress, Thlaspi montanum montanum. I think what I photographed may have been a related subspecies or variant; the species seems to be quite variable.
The interesting tidbit: Alpine Pennycress is being considered for use cleaning up cadmium and zinc wastes from mines.
Discussion
3 repliesI found a bunch of these up in Golden Gate Canyon last weekend. The plant is 3-4" high with thick purplish smooth stems. Leaves are dark green with a purplish tinge, thick and waxy (almost like a succulent), alternating sessile, ovate, sinuate or dentate (few, rounded teeth), and pinnate. Flowers are clustered as in the picture, but the cluster appears to loosen as the flowers mature; in case it's not clear, the flowers open to a 4-petaled cruciform shape.
Ideas?
Guy
The interesting tidbit: Alpine Pennycress is being considered for use cleaning up cadmium and zinc wastes from mines.
Thanks for the help.