Cakile harperi Small. Southeastern Sea-rocket. Phen: May-Jun (-Oct). Hab: Beaches and lower dunes, at or near the wrack line. Dist: A Southeastern Coastal Plain endemic: e. NC south to the east coast of c. peninsular FL.

Origin/Endemic status: Endemic

Taxonomy Comments: Rodman (1974) and most authors since have treated C. harperi as C. edentula ssp. harperi (Small) Rodman. Rodman further treats the Great Lakes and ne. United States coastal populations (respectively) as C. edentula ssp. edentula var. lacustris Fernald and C. edentula ssp. edentula var. edentula. Rodman points out the morphologic distinctions between the three taxa, the chemical differences between "edentula" and "harperi," and the rarity or absence of intermediates in areas of pairwise overlap between the 3 entities. The geographic / morphologic pattern is not clinal, but is rather a sharp step function, with an overlap in the distribution of (and rare hybridization between) two largely distinct taxa. The few intermediates can be interpreted as hybrids or very limited and local introgression between otherwise distinct (though related) taxa. C. harperi shows greater chemical similarity to C. constricta Rodman and C. lanceolata (Willdenow) O.E. Schultz than to C. edentula, and also shows some morphologic affinities with these more southern taxa. For these reasons I prefer the simplicity of treating the three taxa as binomial species.

Synonymy: = RAB, S, S13; = Cakile edentula (Bigelow) Hook. ssp. harperi (Small) Rodman – Fl4, FNA7, GW2, K1, K3, K4, WH3, Al-Shehbaz (1985b), Rodman (1974), Rollins (1993)

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Heliophily: 9