Stems (when present) 1-2 dm. Basal leaves: petiole 0.3-2.6 cm; blade 2.3-8.5(-10) cm, lobes 3-10 on each side, margins coarsely dentate, terminal lobe suborbicular, 0.3-0.6 cm × 5-7 mm (slightly shorter than wide), slightly larger than lateral lobes, margins coarsely dentate. Fruiting pedicels: solitary flowers 30-120 mm; racemes to 40 mm. Flowers: sepals widely spreading, oblong, 2.5-4.5 × 0.9-1.5 mm; petals often erect, white, oblanceolate, 3.7-6.4 × 1-2(-2.5) mm, claw white or pale yellow, 1.3-2.5 mm, apex obtuse or truncate; filaments: median 2.5-4.2 mm, lateral 1.6-2.6 mm; anthers 0.5-0.8(-1) mm. Fruits narrowly oblong, (1.5-) 2-3 cm × 3-4(-5) mm, smooth, latiseptate; valves thin; ovules 18-26 per ovary; style 0.9-2(-2.5) mm. Seeds 2.3-3.5 mm diam.; wing 0.2-0.4 mm wide; embryo slightly accumbent. 2n = 30. Flowering Mar-Apr. Rocky ledges, cedar glades, pastures, roadsides, old fields, thin soil on limestone beds, seeps on limestone rubble; 100-500 m; Ala., Ark., Ga., Ind., Ky., Mo., Ohio, Tenn. Leavenworthia michauxii Torrey, which pertains here, is an illegitimate name based on Cardamine uniflora Michaux.
Principal lvs 2-10 cm נ5-10 mm, deeply pinnatifid with to 9 pairs of acutely toothed lobes, gradually increasing in size from the petiole towards the tip, the terminal lobe only slightly larger than the adjacent lateral pair; sep at first greenish, later purplish; pet white, narrowly lingulate, truncate, usually erect, 5-7 mm, frs thick and somewhat fleshy, 1.5-3 cm נ3-5 mm, nearly as thick as wide, the persistent style 1.5-3 mm; seeds broadly winged, suborbicular, 3-4 mm, the areolae smaller over the embryo than on the wing; radicle strongly bent; 2n=30. Fl before the other spp., and becoming somewhat weedy. Sw. O. to nw. Ga. and nw. Ark.
Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.