File talk:Cardamine occidentalis 37876.JPG

On Aug 27, 2011, Stewart Wechsler wrote: "I believe your photograph is of probably of Cardamine hirsuta. I'm pretty sure it is not C. occidentalis." He added, "having studied the ecology of all of the species I see in your photo: Racomitrium canescens - Roadside Rock Moss, Collinsia parviflora - Small-flowered Blue-eyed mary; Plectritis congesta, I can tell you that these are all indicators of some of our driest soil conditions with some of the earliest seasonal drying. When I found your photo I was doing a search of photos of Cardamine occidentalis. I also went through all of the herbarium records on line of that species in the University of Washington WTU herbarium.[1] Almost all of the records that included the plant community had indicators of above average moisture for a substantial part of the year."

I replied: I agree that Cardamine hirsuta is a better match. I note that "all leaflets wavy-margined to shallowly few-lobed, sparsely stiff-hairy above and on the margins".[2] In my photo, the hairs are visible on the margins and upper surface of the leaves of the basal rosette. I see the ciliate petioles that are described by Jepson.[3] The individual in my picture lacks the "enlarged and tuberous" leafy stem base of C. occidentalis.[4] --Walter Siegmund (talk) 23:38, 28 August 2011 (UTC)