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Spreading rockcress

Arabis patens

Spreading rockcress
Photo: Unknown author, CC0

Spreading rockcress is a short-lived biennial or perennial wildflower of the cabbage family native to eastern North America, growing in dry, rocky, limestone soils. It is grown in gardens mainly for its early spring white flowers.

Family
Brassicaceae (Cabbage family)
Grows as
Perennial
Light
Part shade
Water
Water sparingly once established, allowing the soil to dry between waterings.
Soil
Well-drained, gritty or calcareous soil, such as limestone-rich rocky soil.
Temperature
Hardy in cold winters; protect from extreme heat and humidity.
How easy
Easy
Native range
E. U.S.A.
Climate
temperate

About

Arabis patens, commonly called spreading rockcress, is a species of flowering plant in the mustard family (Brassicaceae). It is a short-lived biennial forb native to North America. Its natural habitat is xeric soil, often on calcareous substrates. It produces white flowers in the spring.

The species was first described in 1819 by William Starling Sullivant and placed in the genus Arabis. In 2003 Ihsan Ali Al-Shehbaz moved the species, along with the other North American species of Arabis, to genus Boechera based on genetic and cytological data. In phylogenetic study published in 2010, Koch et al. placed A. patens in genus Arabis, in a North American clade that also includes A. blepharophylla, A. aculeolata, A. macdonaldiana, A. oregana, A. modesta, A. crucisetosa, A. nuttallii, A. furcata, and A. georgiana.

Where it grows

Arabis patens is found in the United States in the states of Alabama, Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. It grows in rocky wooded slopes, limestone bluffs, and along shady stream banks.

Other Arabis plants

Waldo rockcress · Arabis allionii · Alpine rockcress · Armenian Rock-Cress · Annual Rockcress · Rose rockcress · Gray Rockcress · Arabis cypria · Gray Rockcress · Hairy rockcress · Kazbegian Rock-cress · Troodos rockcress

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Arabis patens by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.

The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.

Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.

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