Alpine or Rollins’s bladderpod

Vesicaria alpina Nuttall in J. Torrey and A. Gray, Fl. N. Amer. 1: 102. 1838, not Physaria alpina Rollins 1981; Alyssum alpinum (Nuttall) Kuntze; Lesquerella alpina (Nuttall) S. Watson; L. alpina var. laevis (Payson) C. L. Hitchcock; L. condensata A. Nelson var. laevis Payson

Perennials; caudex simple or branched, (covered with persistent leaf bases, loosely cespitose); densely pubescent, trichomes (appressed to ascending, plant appearing shaggy, always appressed on fruits), 4- or 5-rayed, rays furcate or bifurcate, (tuberculate throughout). Stems few to several from base, ± erect, (arising laterally, also from within basal leaves), 0.2-0.4 dm. Basal leaves (erect); blade linear-oblanceolate, 1.2-2.8 cm, (base gradually narrowed to petiole), margins entire. Cauline leaves: blade linear, similar to basal. Racemes dense, (often subumbellate, not or barely exceeding basal leaves). Fruiting pedicels (ascending, curved), 3-5.5 mm. Flowers: sepals (pale green-yellow), oblong to elliptic, 4-5 mm, (median pair usually thickened apically, cucullate); petals lingulate, 6-9 mm. Fruits lanceolate in outline, compressed (latiseptate) on margins and at apex, 4-5 mm; valves pubescent, trichomes closely appressed; ovules 8-12 per ovary; style 3.5-4.5 mm (equaling or exceeding length of fruit, curved proximal to stigma). Seeds plump, (oblong).

Flowering May-Jul. Open areas of grasslands on calcareous soils; 1200-1900 m; Colo., Nebr., Wyo.