Diagnostic Characteristics
From Windham & Al Shehbaz 2006: easily distinguished from B. pendulina by being completely glabrous or having only a few simple trichomes on the petioles of basal leaves, prominently auriculate cauline leaves, glabrous sepals, nearly straight fruiting pedicels, divaricate, often secund fruits, and winged seeds. By contrast, B. pendulina has a mixture of simple and stalked, 2-rayed trichomes on basal leaves, mostly non-auriculate cauline leaves, sparsely hirsute sepals, recurved fruiting pedicels, pendent, non-secund fruits, and nearly wingless seeds. Boechera nevadensis differs from B. oxylobula by having auriculate cauline leaves, nearly straight fruiting pedicels, divaricate fruits (2.0)2.33.0 mm wide, 5272 ovules per ovary, and biseriate seeds. By contrast, B. oxylobula has non-auriculate cauline leaves, recurved fruiting pedicels, pendent fruits 1.22.0 mm wide, 2444 ovules per ovary, and uniseriate seeds. Boechera nevadensis is separated from the range of B. oxylobula by over 500 km, but it is sympatric with B. pendulina. As with so many other Boechera species, hybridization between B. nevadensis and B. pendulina has produced apomictic triploids that blur the boundaries between them. However, the diploid populations predominate and are easily recognized.