© Britton, N.L., and A. Brown. 1913. An illustrated flora of the northern Unite… · Public domain
Wikimedia Commons — CC, credited & licensed per image
Brassicaceae family
Carolina Draba Draba reptans
Native
Carolina Draba is an annual wildflower native to Canada and the lower 48 states. It grows to 0.4 ft and blooms Mar – Jun.
More about this plant
Tomostima reptans, common names Carolina draba, Carolina whitlow-grass, Creeping whitlow-grass, and Whitlow-grass, is an annual plant in the family Brassicaceae that is native to temperate North America. Wikipedia →
Growing & care
USDA PLANTS · TRY Conditions
Sources · Conditions
Cold hardiness (derived) — Hardiness
- Hardiness
- ≥ zone 4 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
- 0.4 ft
- Lifespan
- Annual
- 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 The garden year bloom → fruit → fall colour
J
F
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A
M
J
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A
S
O
N
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Bloom
Bloom (the flower's colour)
Bloom · Mar – Jun — 91 obs · Herbarium specimens — Park et al. 2023 (CC BY 4.0)
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 ~2 caterpillar species
Draba supports ~2 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 Draba in North America, including:
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).
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.
Related plants
More Draba →
Native
Alaska Draba
Draba stenoloba
●○○○○ Native
Aleutian Draba
Draba aleutica
●○○○○ 
Native
Alpine Draba
Draba alpina
●○○○○ 
Native
Alpine Tundra Draba
Draba streptobrachia
●○○○○ 
Native
Anadyr Draba
Draba stenopetala
●○○○○ 
Native
Arctic Whitlowgrass
Draba arctica
●○○○○ Same genus / family, ranked by ecological value — from the PlantKey catalog
Sources for this entry (17) 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 — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503) — native status
[06] Photos — Wikimedia Commons — CC, credited per image
[07] Description — Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
[08] Ecological value — Warren II 2026 (CC0) · Tallamy host-use counts
[09] Bloom period — Herbarium specimens — Park et al. 2023 (CC BY 4.0)
[10] Conservation rank — NatureServe Explorer (CC BY)
[11] Foliage — TRY Plant Trait Database (CC BY 4.0)
[12] Height — TRY Plant Trait Database (CC BY 4.0)
[13] Functional traits — TRY Plant Trait Database (CC BY 4.0)
[14] Cold hardiness (derived) — Derived from U.S. range × USDA PHZM zones
[16] Caterpillar host count — Warren II 2026 (Dryad, CC0) · Tallamy host-use counts
[17] Caterpillar species — NHM HOSTS (CC0)
Spot an error or have a better photo? Every field links to its source, and the whole dataset is open.
Cite this page Open data, please attribute
PlantKey’s data is open under CC BY-SA 4.0 — free to reuse and adapt, with attribution and the same licence. Photos keep their own per-image licence + credit (see Sources above).
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