Draba aurea Vahl ex Hornemann var. stylosa A. Gray; D. helleriana var. leiocarpa O. E. Schulz; D. helleriana var. neomexicana (Greene) O. E. Schulz; D. helleriana var. patens (A. Heller) O. E. Schulz; D. helleriana var. pinetorum (Greene) O. E. Schulz; D. neomexicana Greene; D. neomexicana var. robusta A. Heller; D. pallida A. Heller; D. patens A. Heller; D. pinetorum Greene; D. stylosa (A. Gray) A. Heller 1897, not Turczaninow 1854

Biennials or perennials; (short-lived); caudex simple or branched; not scapose. Stems branched, (0.1-)1.5-4.3(-5.1) dm, hirsute throughout, trichomes simple, 0.4-1.3(-1.8) mm, with short-stalked to subsessile, 3-5-rayed ones, 0.2-0.4 mm, (some slightly coarser, 2-rayed). Basal leaves rosulate; petiolate; petiole base ciliate or not; blade oblanceolate to obovate, 0.9-4.1 (-5.2) cm × 2-7(-10) mm, margins entire or dentate, surfaces pubescent, abaxially with stalked, cruciform, and fewer 3-5-rayed trichomes, 0.1-0.6 mm, adaxially with cruciform and simple trichomes, 0.4-1.3 mm, and smaller 2-rayed ones. Cauline leaves (8-)12-31(-43); sessile; blade ovate to lanceolate or oblong, margins usually dentate, rarely subentire, surfaces pubescent as basal. Racemes 10-52(-83)-flowered, usually ebracteate, rarely proximalmost 1 or 2 flowers bracteate, elongated in fruit; rachis not flexuous, pubescent as stem. Fruiting pedicels horizontal to divaricate-ascending, straight or slightly curved upward, 4-10(-13) mm, pubescent as rachis abaxially, glabrous adaxially. Flowers: sepals oblong, 2.5-4 mm, pubescent, (trichomes simple and stalked, 2-rayed); petals yellow, oblanceolate, 5-7 × 1.5-2.2 mm; anthers oblong, 0.5-0.8 mm. Fruits (not appressed to rachis), lanceolate to ovate or oblong-lanceolate, slightly to strongly twisted or plane, flattened, 5-15 × 2-3.5 mm; valves puberulent, trichomes simple and subsessile, 2(-4)-rayed, 0.03-0.25(-0.8) mm; ovules 14-28 per ovary; style (1-)1.5-3.5 mm. Seeds oblong, 1-1.3 × 0.6-0.8 mm. 2n = 18.

Flowering Jun-Sep. Oak and pine-fir woodlands, aspen groves, rocky meadows; 2100-3600 m; Ariz., Colo., N.Mex.; Mexico (Nuevo León).

Draba helleriana is highly variable and was divided by C. L. Hitchcock (1941) into four varieties. For a discussion of those and the circumscription of the species, see I. A. Al-Shehbaz and M. D. Windham (2007).