Participant Info

Species

Lepidium draba [Cardaria draba]

Family

Brassicaceae

CommonName

short whitetop, hoary cress, Thanet cress

Presence

YES

Status

exotic, noxious

EarliestDate

1920

LatestDate

2024

Ecosystem

foothill, montane, ruderal, urban

Geobotanical

UBasin, LBasin

Counties

Conejos, Costilla, Rio Grande, Saguache

Passes

Cochetopa

WildlifePreserves

Other Localities

Alamosa (town), Del Norte

PhotoRecords

YES Rich Haswell: Alamosa Co, Rio Grande Nature Preserve near Alamosa 7 July 2016

Comments

Lepidium draba is the “short whitetop” that infests farmer fields and crops in the USA West. (The "tall whitetop" is Lepidium latifolium). L. draba seems of little concern in the Watershed. It has been collected mainly in the lower Basin (the earliest record is La Jara, 1910). In the La Garitas and south San Juans of the Watershed, it has adapted to foothills and mountain grasslands. It is on Colorado's B list of "noxious weeds." In the Rio Grande drainage, it carries on down New Mexico to the Mexico border and beyond only to El Paso Co of Texas.

Annotation