WildBristol.uk - Discovering Wildlife in Bristol

Nationally rare but scattered throughout the UK and mainly in the South. Habitat includes: Open, dry, often calcareous places such as rocky outcrops, coasts, chalk downland (where it may grow on ant hills), sand dunes, sandy ground inland, walls, railway lines, gravel paths, old quarries etc. Growing habit: Annual. Height: Up to 12 cm. Flowers: January to April.

Stace 4:

Erophila majuscula Jord. - Hairy Whitlowgrass.

Plant densely hairy, with 2-many stems to 9cm; fruit oblong to elliptic, more or less flat, 2.5-6mm, 1.5-4x as long as wide, with 15-60(70) seeds; 2n=14. Native; all sorts of open, dry ground, especially on calcareous soils, but rarely or not on dunes; scattered sparsely through British Isles except North & West Scotland and West & Central Ireland, commoner in South.

Key:

• Leaves and lower parts of stems densely grey-hairy; petioles 1/5-1/2 as long as leaf-blades; seeds 0.3-0.5mm; petals bifid ≤1/2 way to base

Useful Links:

Online Atlas of the British and Irish Flora

MAKAQues

Flora of Northern Ireland

Kew (as Draba verna var. verna)

GBIF

EDIT (as Draba verna subsp. verna)

NBN