Clusters of tiny, bright yellow flowers crown a 6–17-inch tall, branching stem. Tiny hairs cover the basal and stem leaves and the stem. Note the hairy, twisted seed pods. Common from coniferous forests to alpine meadows, but highly variable.

FLOWERS: June–September. Loose, spike-like clusters (racemes) with 10–52 yellow flowers, each with 4 lance-shaped petals, 1/4–3/8 inch (5–7 mm) long. Note the flower style is 1/8-inch long (2–3 mm). Fruiting capsule (silique) slightly to strongly twisted, narrow, linear, 3/16–5/8 inch long (5–15 mm), covered with tiny hairs; fruit stems (pedicels) hairy, 1/8–3/8-inch long (4–10 mm), horizontal to slightly curved upward.

LEAVES: Basal rosette leaves with short stems (petioles), blades oval to lance-shaped with rounded tips, 3/8–1 1/2-inches long (9–41 mm); 12–31 stem leaves, alternate, oval to lance-shaped, covered with tiny hairs, margin entire or with scattered, sharp teeth. Both surfaces covered with stalked, cross-shaped hairs (use 10X lens).

HABITAT: Gravel loam soils, trailsides, meadows, roadsides; ponderosa-oak, spruce-fir, aspen forests.

ELEVATION: 6,500–12,500 feet.

RANGE: AZ, CO, NM.

SIMILAR SPECIES: 10 species of yellow-flowering Draba in NM, some also with twisted pods. Many are separated only by type of hairs, presence of stem leaves, or length of flower styles or fruit stems. The look-alike Golden Draba, D. aurea, in much the same range at high elevations, has styles less than 1/16-inch (1.5 mm) long (use lens).

NM COUNTIES: Widespread in mountains of NM in mid- to high-elevation, moist habitats: Bernalillo, Catron, Cibola, Colfax, Grant, Lincoln, Los Alamos, Luna, McKinley, Mora, Otero, Rio Arriba, San Juan, San Miguel, Santa Fe, Sandoval, Sierra, Socorro, Taos, Torrance, Valencia.