Hairy Whitetop, Globe-Podded Hoary Cress
Cardaria pubescens (C.A. Mey.) Jarmolenko
Brassicaceae (Mustard Family)
▲▼flowering plants
▲▼flowering stems and leaves
▲▼flowers and fruit
Globe-Podded Hoary Cress, Hairy Whitetop:
· a creeping perennial weed that produces creeping roots
· produces colonies of mostly unbranched stems
· leaves are lanceolate, with toothed margins; base of leaves wrap partially around stem, and leaves usually have soft hairs covering them
· produces clusters of terminal racemes with showy white flowers in mid to late spring
· silique is a small, inflated, globe-shaped capsule
· has irritating sap, if livestock graze it
· can be very difficult to control, due to lack of susceptibility to many herbicides and its underground structures
· more common north or west of here, but could potentially become established here
· two other similar creeping perennial species—lens-podded hoary cress, and hoary cress are also more common further west—distinguished only by silique shapes