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Draba graminea
Brassicaceae (Mustard Family)

Alpine. Scree. Summer.
Location withheld to protect the plants. August 1, 2005.

These rare, delicate beauties are only one-to-five centimeters high and not much wider, but they can spread themselves in a mat to ten or fifteen centimeters in diameter.  They tuck themselves into small pockets of soil in rocky alpine areas, often quite close to melting snow.  Smooth leaves can emerge red (upper right) and are almost succulent-looking.  Leaves have short scattered hairs on the margins, usually near the base, but as can be seen on a number of leaves at left, hairs can also be on the tips of leaves.  Flower stems have just one or two reduced leaves; one is visible below the right petals of the second from bottom flower at far left.  Draba graminea is found only in Colorado in the western San Juan Mountains.

Draba graminea
Brassicaceae (Mustard Family)

Alpine. Scree. Summer.
August 1, 2007.

D. graminea was first collected by Tweedy near Telluride in 1894.  Edward Greene named and described the plant in 1901.  "Draba", Greek for "acrid", was a name applied to similar Mustards known to the Greeks thousands of years ago and "graminea" is Latin for "grass-like".

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Draba graminea
Brassicaceae (Mustard Family)

Alpine. Scree. Summer.
August 1, 2005.