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Brassicaceae family

Running Rockcress Arabis procurrens

Running Rockcress is an introduced perennial herb, found in the lower 48 states. It grows to 0.7 ft.

More about this plant

Arabis procurrens, the running rockcress or spreading rock cress, is a species of flowering plant in the family Brassicaceae. It is a spreading evergreen or semi-evergreen perennial, forming a dense mat of foliage, with loose racemes of white flowers in spring, suitable for cultivation in the alpine garden. Wikipedia →

Growing & care

USDA PLANTS · TRY
Conditions
Sources · Conditions
Cold hardiness (derived) — Hardiness
Hardiness
≥ zone 7 derived from its U.S. range
Size & form
Sources · Size & form
TRY Plant Trait Database (CC BY 4.0) — Height · Foliage
USDA PLANTS — Lifespan
Height
0.7 ft
Lifespan
Perennial
Foliage
Broadleaf
In the garden
Ground-cover layer — Sits in the ground-cover of a layered food forest or polyculture.Open guide →
Living mulch / groundcover — Low, ground-hugging grower — can carpet bare soil as a living mulch, shading out weeds and holding moisture.Open guide →
derived roles
Species characteristics from USDA PLANTS (public domain) + TRY (CC BY) — general guidance, not a guarantee for your exact site. Deer "browsing" is documented palatability, not a deer-proof claim.

Wildlife & pollinators

How pollinator value is scored →
❧ Caterpillar hosts ~7 caterpillar species

Arabis supports ~7 caterpillar species.

Native butterfly & moth caterpillars are the base of the terrestrial food web — most songbirds rear their young almost entirely on them. As a host for native Lepidoptera this is a modest genus.

Recorded feeding on Arabis in North America, including:

Anthocharis sara · Sara Orangetip Colias occidentalis · Western Sulphur Euchloe ausonides · Large Marble Euchloe creusa · Northern Marblewing Euchloe hyantis · California Marble Euchloe olympia · Olympia Marble
+ 8 more species →
Hellula rogatalis · Cabbage Webworm Moth Paramidea lanceolata · white / sulphur butterfly Paramidea midea · white / sulphur butterfly Pieris napi · Green-Veined White Pieris virginiensis · West Virginia White Pontia beckerii · Becker's White Pontia occidentalis · Western White Pontia protodice · Checkered White
Keystone count (genus-level) from Warren II 2026 (CC0) · Tallamy host-use records. Named species (a documented Nearctic sample, not exhaustive) from NHM HOSTS (CC0).
✦ Bees specialist-bee host

Specialist native bees depend on it.

Some native bees are pollen specialists (oligolectic) — they raise young only on pollen from particular plant genera. Arabis is a recorded specialist-bee host, so losing it can mean losing the bee that relies on it.

Xerces pollinator conservation →
Specialist hosts from Smith et al. 2024.
Wildlife & visitors 2 mammals

Open records of who else uses Running Rockcress — a generalist food-web signal, kept separate from the keystone Ecological Value.

Recorded eaten by 2 mammals species (fruit, seed, browse):

Ovis aries · Domestic Sheep Ursus arctos · Brown Bear
Interaction records (observations, not exhaustive) from GloBI → (CC0). Counts are distinct species; names are the most-recorded. Common names from Wikidata (CC0).
Species thumbnails re-hosted from iNaturalist — Creative Commons, credited per image (hover for credit). Click any species to see it on iNaturalist. Not exhaustive; many taxa have no openly-licensed photo yet.
Sources for this entry (16) Open & cited
[01] Scientific name & family — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)
[02] Growth habit & duration — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)
[03] Native status & distribution — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)
[04] Common name — USDA PLANTS (via GBIF)
[05] Invasive / introduced status — US-RIIS v2.0 (USGS)
[07] Description — Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
[08] Ecological value — Warren II 2026 (CC0) · Tallamy host-use counts · Smith et al. 2024 (CC BY)
[11] Cold hardiness (derived) — Derived from U.S. range × USDA PHZM zones
[12] Wildlife & visitors — GloBI — Global Biotic Interactions (CC0)
[14] Caterpillar host count — Warren II 2026 (Dryad, CC0) · Tallamy host-use counts
[15] Caterpillar species — NHM HOSTS (CC0)
[16] County range — GBIF Open Data — open-licensed occurrences (CC0/CC-BY) → county
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