Rough wallflower is an attractive biennial to short-lived perennial wildflower with one to several, stout, simple stems from 10-120 cm high. The herbage consists of appressed twice-branched to many branched, radiate hairs, giving the stems and leaves a light, whitish cast. The leaves are linear, lanceolate or oblanceolate with entire to toothed and wavy leaf margins. The leaves are petiolate, 7-15 cm long, and often with the margins folded upwards from the midvein.
The inflorescence is a raceme of yellow to orange-yellow flowers at the apex of the stem. The sepals measure from 8-12 mm long while the petals are 15-25 mm long. The stout pedicels range from 8-13 mm long. The fruits are siliques which measure from 4-12 cm long and are 1-2 mm wide. They are spreading to ascending.
Rough wallflower is found on dry slopes from the valleys to high in the mountains.
Rough wallflower may be found east of the Cascade Mts. from southern British Columbia south through Washington to Oregon and east across most of the west to Manitoba, Minnesota, Kansas, Oklahoma and New Mexico. Its range extends westward through the Columbia River Gorge to the Willamette Valley and hence south to California.
The photo above shows a close-up of the inflorescence of rough wallflower as seen in meadows along Forest Road 40-020 at Ray Ridge Viewpoint, Umatilla National Forest...........June 25, 2007.