Vascular Plants of North Carolina

Account for American Searocket - Cakile edentula (Bigelow) Hooker

Section 6 » Order Capparales » Family Brassicaceae

Author	(Bigelow) Hooker
Distribution	Present only along the coast, but mostly found on the northern portion south to Hatteras Island. This species and C. harperi are often lumped as a single species, and thus the overall ranges of the two are slightly muddled. This species occurs from Labrador south to NC.
Abundance	Perhaps fairly common from the VA line to Hatteras Island, but rare to uncommon to Brunswick County. It appears to be less numerous along the coast than is C. harperi, but which species is more numerous in Currituck and Dare counties is not clear.
Habitat	This is a species of beaches and foredunes, including sand flats. Habitats appear to be identical to those of C. harperi in NC.
Phenology	Blooms in May and June, and sporadically over the year; fruits soon after flowering.
Identification	Both of these two species are almost identical. They are bushy, with very thick and fleshy stem and leaves, growing to about 6-9 inches tall, with widely spreading branches. The few alternate stem leaves are obovate to spatulate, with a few teeth. Each branch ends in a raceme, with scattered small flowers that have pink to whitish petals. These two species are separated by fruit characters: in this species "Upper fruit segment 7-15 mm long, 4-angled (to weakly 8-ribbed); articulating surface of lower fruit segment flat to concave and with 2 (-6) small teeth projecting upward or the sides prolonged upward into 2 opposite triangular wedges", versus "upper fruit segment 12-20 mm long, 8-ribbed; articulating surface of lower fruit segment flat (to slightly convex or concave) and without teeth" in C. harperi, according to Weakley (2018).
Taxonomic Comments	Many references lump these two, though usually as varieties of one species or the other.
Other Common Name(s)	Northeastern Searocket
State Rank	S3
Global Rank	G5
State Status
US Status
USACE-agcp	FACU link
USACE-emp	FACU link

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