Perennials; short- to long-lived; sexual; caudex usually not woody. Stems usually 1 per caudex branch, arising from center of rosette near ground surface, (0.6-)1-4.5 dm, densely pubescent proximally, trichomes short-stalked, 4-8-rayed, 0.1-0.4 mm, similarly pubescent distally. Basal leaves: blade linear to linear-oblanceolate, 2-4(-6) mm wide, margins entire, usually ciliate at petiole base, trichomes (simple or spurred), to 1.5 mm, surfaces densely pubescent, trichomes short-stalked, 4-8-rayed, 0.1-0.4 mm. Cauline leaves: 6-10, not concealing stem; blade auricles absent, surfaces of distalmost leaves densely pubescent. Racemes (5-)10-25-flowered, usually unbranched. Fruiting pedicels reflexed, strongly curved at base, 2-10 mm, pubescent, trichomes appressed, branched. Flowers divaricate at anthesis; sepals pubescent; petals light purple to lavender, 6-9 × 1.5-2.5 mm, glabrous; pollen ellipsoid. Fruits strongly reflexed, sometimes appressed to rachis, often secund, straight, edges parallel, (1.8-) 2.5-4.5 cm × 5-8 mm; valves glabrous; ovules 24-62 per ovary; style 0.2-0.6 mm. Seeds biseriate, 5-6 × 4-5 mm; wing continuous, 1.8-2.5 mm wide. 2n = 14.

Flowering Mar-Apr. Rocky slopes and gravelly soil, usually under shelter of desert shrubs; 600-1600 m; Calif., Nev.

Boechera glaucovalvula, a distinctive sexual diploid that has the widest fruits in the genus, is known from Inyo, Mono, Riverside, and San Bernardino counties, California, and Clark and Nye counties, Nevada.