With slender, unbranching stems 6–30 inches tall, small leaves that hug the stem, and tight clusters of 3/8 inch wide flowers, this mustard is easy to overlook in mountain meadows, slopes, and trail sides. Note 4 white petals in a cross shape and nearly hairless stems. The single stem per rosette, hairless sepals that cup the petals, and the thin, upward-pointing, cylindrical fruit capsules distinguish this species.

FLOWER: May–July. Erect clusters at stem tips have 8–35 flowers on 3/4 inch long stalks (20 mm); 4 narrow petals, white aging to lavender; sepals erect, pale green, hairless. Fruit a thin wire-like capsule, erect, hugging the stem (not spreading away from stem, or drooping).

LEAVES: Basal rosette, often several growing together; blades oblong with long stems (petioles), tips pointed. Stem leaves alternate, clasp and conceal stem near base, more spaced upward; blades to 3 inches long (7.5 cm), narrowly lance-shaped with 2 small lobes at base; color varies from green to dark purple. Basal leaf surfaces have scattered tiny hairs with two branches–use lens (other species have unbranched or star-shaped hairs).

HABITAT: Gravelly soils of forest openings, meadows, slopes, canyons, drainages, roadsides; ponderosa-Gambel’s oak, spruce/fir-aspen forests, alpine meadows.

ELEVATION: 8,000–11,000 feet.

RANGE: AZ, CA, CO, ID, MT, NM, NV, OR, UT, WA, WY; scattered across northern tier of states into New England.

SIMILAR SPECIES: 17 species and hybrids of Boechera in NM, many with only slight differences in hair structure. B. stricta crosses with almost all.

NM COUNTIES: Northern mountains of NM in mid- to high-elevation habitats: Cibola, Colfax, Los Alamos, McKinley, Mora, Rio Arriba, San Juan, San Miguel, Sandoval, Santa Fe, Socorro, Taos, Valencia.