Western wallflower is an erect, leafy, biennial or short-lived perennial herb with simple strigose stems, lanceolate few-toothed lower leaves and reduced, entire-margined upper leaves, both alternate.  Flowers appear on short stalks in a loose ± open cluster with four sepals and four showy orange to yellow somewhat clawed petals.  The fruit is a 4" long ascending, four-sided or slightly flattened silique with oblong to elliptic distally-winged or non-winged seeds.  Western wallflower is a common member of many plant communities, generally away from the coast, below 8000', in dry stony or woodsy places.  A closely related plant in the Old World is a frequent resident on dry stone walls, hence the name.  This species blooms normally from March to July and is exceedingly variable.

Click here for Latin name derivations: 1) Erysimum 2) capitatum.
Pronunciation: er-IS-i-mum kap-i-TAY-tum.
Click here for Botanical Term Meanings.