Descurainia incana(Bernh. ex Fisch. & C.A.Mey.) Dorn

mountain tansymustard

WFO wfo-0000641891 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 5 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 5 times, so some figures below are different views of the same plant, taken on the same day, rather than different individuals. They are usually different parts of it: the leaf, the flower, the bark.

Descurainia incana, photographed by Syd Cannings
fig. a Syd Cannings, CC BY 4.0 / 2019-07-01 / obs. 43665677
Descurainia incana, photographed by Craig Martin
fig. b Craig Martin, CC0 1.0 / obs. 932634
Descurainia incana, photographed by Syd Cannings
fig. c Syd Cannings, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 43661282
Descurainia incana, photographed by Cecelia Alexander
fig. d Cecelia Alexander, CC0 1.0 / obs. 20819018
Descurainia incana, photographed by Cecelia Alexander
fig. e Cecelia Alexander, CC0 1.0 / obs. 20819023
Descurainia incana, photographed by Syd Cannings
fig. f Syd Cannings, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 142234094
Descurainia incana, photographed by Syd Cannings
fig. g Syd Cannings, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 142230539
Descurainia incana, photographed by Syd Cannings
fig. h Syd Cannings, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 142234105

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

The specimen a real sheet, in a real collection

Herbarium
The New York Botanical Garden
Accession
125983
Filed as
Descurainia incana (Bernh. ex Fisch. & C.A.Mey.) Dorn
Det. by
N. H. Holmgren 1999-11-09
Collected
R. Foster 1977-07-20
Origin
US
The sheet
View the digitised specimen (CC BY 4.0)

A real pressed plant, in a real collection, under the accession number above. Not an illustration of one. The holding institution does not serve this sheet’s image to third parties, so there is no photograph here. The record is real and the link goes to it. Where we hold no openly licensed sheet for a species this section is simply absent, and where a sheet never recorded who determined it, that field stays empty rather than being filled in. Roughly half of all herbarium sheets never recorded a determiner, which is ordinary.

Native range 25 botanical countries

Regions where Descurainia incana is native: Alaska, Alberta, British Columbia, California, Colorado, Idaho, Maine, Manitoba, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Ontario, Oregon, Québec, Saskatchewan, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, Washington, Wyoming, Yukon AlaskaAlbertaBritish ColumbiaCaliforniaColoradoIdahoMaineManitobaMinnesotaMontanaNevadaNew MexicoNorth DakotaNorthwest TerritoriesNunavutOntarioOregonQuébecSaskatchewanSouth DakotaUtahVermontWashingtonWyomingYukon
Native distribution of Descurainia incana, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Alaska ASK NORTHERN AMERICA
Alberta ABT
British Columbia BRC
California CAL
Colorado COL
Idaho IDA
Maine MAI
Manitoba MAN
Minnesota MIN
Montana MNT
Nevada NEV
New Mexico NWM
North Dakota NDA
Northwest Territories NWT
Nunavut NUN
Ontario ONT
Oregon ORE
Québec QUE
Saskatchewan SAS
South Dakota SDA
Utah UTA
Vermont VER
Washington WAS
Wyoming WYO
Yukon YUK

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Also published as 20 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Descurainia incana subsp. procera (Greene) Kartesz & Gandhi
  • Descurainia incana var. brevipes (Nutt. ex Torr. & A.Gray) S.L.Welsh
  • Descurainia incana var. macrosperma (O.E.Schulz) Dorn
  • Descurainia incana var. major (Hook.) Dorn
  • Descurainia richardsonii O.E.Schulz
  • Descurainia richardsonii subsp. procera (Greene) Detling
  • Descurainia richardsonii var. alpestris (Cockerell) O.E.Schulz
  • Descurainia richardsonii var. brevipes (Torr. & A.Gray) S.L.Welsh & Reveal
  • Descurainia richardsonii var. macrosperma O.E.Schulz
  • Descurainia richardsonii var. procera (Greene) Breitung
  • Sisymbrium canescens var. alpestre Cockerell
  • Sisymbrium canescens var. brevipes Nutt.
  • Sisymbrium canescens var. major Hook.
  • Sisymbrium incanum Bernh. ex Fisch. & C.A.Mey.
  • Sisymbrium procerum (Greene) K.Schum.
  • Sisymbrium richardsonii Sweet
  • Sophia brevipes Rydb.
  • Sophia procera Greene
  • Sophia richardsoniana (Sweet) Rydb.
  • Sophia richardsonii Rydb.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.