Shale Barren Rock Cress

This is a biennial herb which has a small, inconspicuous basal rosette of leaves measuring a few centimeters wide. It bolts with an erect, branching stem that can reach a maximum height near one meter. Leaves along the stem may be 5 to 15 centimeters long, lance-shaped, and sometimes toothed along the edges. Leaves wither early, and the plant may have few or no leaves at flowering. The inflorescence is a raceme of several tiny white flowers each under a centimeter wide. The fruit is a silique measuring 4 to 8 centimeters in length and containing many small seeds.

This endangered plant grows in mid-Appalachian shale barrens, an eroding shale scree of Devonian origin. This habitat occurs in Virginia pine woodlands and is made up of unstable rock and thin soils which are largely weathered fragments of shale known as channery. Most populations of the plant have a few individuals. The rocky soils receive direct sunlight that makes them too hot (up to 63 °C) to support many plant species.