Physaria multiceps

Perennials; caudex (buried), branched, (not thickened); densely pubescent, trichomes (sessile or short-stalked), 5-8 -rayed, rays furcate or bifurcate, (umbonate, rough to finely tuberculate throughout). Stems several from base, prostrate, (slender, sparsely pubescent), 0.5-2 dm. Basal leaves: blade obovate to narrowly elliptic, 1.5-6 cm, margins usually entire, rarely shallowly dentate, (surfaces densely pubescent, often silvery). Cauline leaves: blade oblanceolate to spatulate, 0.5-1 cm, margins entire, (surfaces often sparsely pubescent). Racemes (narrow), loose, (elongated in fruit). Fruiting pedicels (ascending to somewhat spreading, straight to slightly curved), 4-8(-12) mm. Flowers: sepals (greenish brown, sometimes magenta), linear or elliptic, 4.3-6(-7.5) mm, (median pair thickened apically, cucullate); petals (frequently pink or magenta in distal 1/3-1/2), spatulate to oblanceolate, 6-10(-12) mm, (claw undifferentiated from blade). Fruits broadly ovoid to suborbicular, inflated, (terete or, often, slightly angustiseptate), 3-6 mm; valves sparsely pubescent; ovules usually 4, rarely 6-8 per ovary; style 3-6.5 mm. Seeds plump.

Flowering May-Jul. Douglas-fir or spruce woodlands, limestone ridges, damp open slopes, soil pockets among rocks, crevices of rocks, decomposed calcareous rocks; 2400-2900 m; Idaho, Utah, Wyo.