Draba glabellaPursh

smooth draba

WFO wfo-0000655359 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.

Draba glabella, photographed by Quinten Wiegersma
fig. a Quinten Wiegersma, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-05-13 / obs. 199235597

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
Smithsonian, US National Herbarium
Accession
US 2440876
Filed as
Draba glabella Pursh
Det. by
Shetler, Stanwyn G., (US), NMNH
Collected
J. M. Campbell 1959-06-27
Origin
US
The sheet
View the digitised specimen (CC0 1.0)

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 36 botanical countries

Regions where Draba glabella is native: Altay, Amur, Buryatiya, Kamchatka, Kazakhstan, Khabarovsk, Krasnoyarsk, Magadan, Mongolia, Tuva, West Siberia, Yakutiya, East European Russia, Finland, Iceland, North European Russia, Norway, Svalbard, Sweden, Alaska, British Columbia, Greenland, Labrador, Maine, Manitoba, New Brunswick, New York, Newfoundland, Northwest Territories, Nova Scotia, Nunavut, Ontario, Québec, Vermont, Wisconsin, Yukon AltayAmurBuryatiyaKamchatkaKazakhstanKhabarovskKrasnoyarskMagadanMongoliaTuvaWest SiberiaYakutiyaEast European RussiaFinlandIcelandNorth European RussiaNorwaySvalbardSwedenAlaskaBritish ColumbiaGreenlandLabradorMaineManitobaNew BrunswickNew YorkNewfoundlandNorthwest TerritoriesNova ScotiaNunavutOntarioQuébecVermontWisconsinYukon
Native distribution of Draba glabella, 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
British Columbia BRC
Greenland GNL
Labrador LAB
Maine MAI
Manitoba MAN
New Brunswick NBR
New York NWY
Newfoundland NFL
Northwest Territories NWT
Nova Scotia NSC
Nunavut NUN
Ontario ONT
Québec QUE
Vermont VER
Wisconsin WIS
Yukon YUK
Altay ALT ASIA-TEMPERATE
Amur AMU
Buryatiya BRY
Kamchatka KAM
Kazakhstan KAZ
Khabarovsk KHA
Krasnoyarsk KRA
Magadan MAG
Mongolia MON
Tuva TVA
West Siberia WSB
Yakutiya YAK
East European Russia RUE EUROPE
Finland FIN
Iceland ICE
North European Russia RUN
Norway NOR
Svalbard SVA
Sweden SWE

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.

Where it actually grows measured, from 66 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -27.3 °C -19.7 °C -11.0 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 3.0 °C 14.7 °C 24.7 °C
Annual rainfall 330 mm 665 mm 1,504 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 35 mm 100 mm 295 mm

It is found where winters are arctic. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 66 research-grade observations of Draba glabella that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.

Also published as 27 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.

  • Cardamine magellanica var. dovrensis (Fr.) E.Ekman
  • Draba arabisans var. canadensis (Brunet) Fernald & C.H.Knowlt.
  • Draba arabisans var. orthocarpa Fernald & C.H.Knowlt.
  • Draba canadensis Brunet
  • Draba daurica DC.
  • Draba daurica f. brachycarpa E.Ekman
  • Draba daurica f. condensata E.Ekman
  • Draba daurica var. hebecarpa (Lindblom) Karlsson
  • Draba daurica var. lutescens E.Ekman
  • Draba daurica var. rupestriformis E.Ekman
  • Draba dovrensis Fr.
  • Draba glabella var. brachycarpa Fernald
  • Draba glabella var. glabella Pursh
  • Draba glabella var. megasperma (Fernald & C.H.Knowlt.) Fernald
  • Draba glabella var. orthocarpa Fernald
  • Draba gracilis Ledeb.
  • Draba henneana Schltdl.
  • Draba hirta L.
  • Draba hirta var. brachycarpa Rupr.
  • Draba hirta var. laurentiana (Fernald) B.Boivin
  • Draba johannis Host
  • Draba laurentiana Fernald
  • Draba magellanica subsp. cinerea (Fr.) E.Ekman
  • Draba megasperma Fernald & C.H.Knowlt.

and 3 more.

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.