All Floras      Advanced Search
FOC Vol. 8 Page 59 Login | eFloras Home | Help
FOC | Family List | FOC Vol. 8 | Brassicaceae

36. Alyssum Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 2: 650. 1753.

庭荠属 ting ji shu

Alyssum desertorum

Credit: Photo: Al-Shehbaz

Gamosepalum Haussknecht; Meniocus Desvaux; Moenchia Roth (1788), not Ehrhart (1783); Odontarrhena C. A. Meyer; Psilonema C. A. Meyer; Ptilotrichum C. A. Meyer; Takhtajaniella V. E. Avetisian; Triplopetalum E. J. Nyárády.

Herbs annual, biennial, perennial, or rarely subshrubs. Trichomes stellate, stalked or sessile, with 2-6 minute basal branches from which originate up to 30, simple or branched rays, sometimes trichomes lepidote, rarely mixed with simple and forked. Stems erect or decumbent, simple or branched. Basal leaves petiolate or sessile, rosulate or not rosulate, simple, entire. Cauline leaves petiolate or sessile, cuneate or attenuate, not auriculate, entire. Racemes few to many flowered, dense or lax, ebracteate, corymbose or in panicles, elongated or not in fruit. Fruiting pedicels ascending, divaricate, or reflexed. Sepals ovate or oblong, base of lateral pair not saccate. Petals yellow, white, or rarely pink; blade suborbicular, obovate, or spatulate, apex obtuse or emarginate, glabrous or pubescent outside. Stamens 6, tetradynamous; filaments wingless or uni- or bilaterally winged, appendaged or not, toothed or toothless; anthers ovate or oblong, apiculate or not at apex. Nectar glands 4, lateral, 1 on each side of lateral stamen; median glands absent. Ovules 1 or 2(or 4-8) per ovary; placentation apical or parietal. Fruit dehiscent silicles, oblong, ovate, obovate, elliptic, obcordate, or rarely globose, strongly latiseptate or rarely inflated, sessile; valves veinless, pubescent or glabrous, smooth; replum rounded; septum complete, membranous, translucent, veinless; style distinct; stigma capitate, entire. Seeds biseriate, winged or wingless, orbicular or ovate, flattened; seed coat smooth or minutely reticulate, mucilaginous or not when wetted; cotyledons accumbent or incumbent.

About 170 species: primarily in SW Asia and SE Europe; ten species in China.

In his protologue of Ptilotrichum, Meyer (in Ledebour, Fl. Altaic. 3: 64. 1831) distinguished the genus by having white flowers, edentate filaments, and 1-seeded locules. However, these characters are also found in Alyssum, in many species of which one of the two ovules fails to mature into a seed, while in others the filaments are edentate. As for the flower color, it is definitely unreliable in Alyssum sensu lato, just as is the case in numerous other genera of the family, namely Cardamine, Draba, Lepidium, and Rorippa. In fact, the filament base in most plants of P. canescens, the generic type of Ptilotrichum, produces a small, basal tooth. If one accepts Ptilotrichum as a distinct genus, then at least five of the other segregates of Alyssum (Gamosepalum, Meniocus, Odontarrhena, Psilonema, and Takhtajaniella) should also be recognized, an action that the present authors do not support, especially after examining the genus critically on a worldwide basis.

Although Alyssum fedtschenkoanum N. Busch was suspected in FRPS to occur in W China, the present authors have seen no Chinese material in the numerous herbaria they consulted both inside and outside of China. The species is narrowly endemic to Kazakhstan. It is likely that the plant recorded in FRPS represents a minor variant of the widespread and highly variable A. tortuosum.

The ovule number and placentation are important in the identification of the species and can be easily observed in the fruit.


1 Plants annual.   (2)
+ Plants perennial with a woody base.   (6)
       
2 (1) Fruit flattened; ovules 4-8 per locule; placentation parietal   1 A. linifolium
+ Fruit inflated (biconvex) at least in the middle; ovules 2 per locule; placentation subapical.   (3)
       
3 (2) All filaments slender, without teeth, wings, or appendages; pedicels and sepals with stellate trichomes mixed with longer, simple and forked ones.   (4)
+ Filaments of lateral stamens with 2-toothed appendage, median filaments winged and often toothed; pedicels and sepals with stellate and rarely a few forked trichomes.   (5)
       
4 (3) Fruit with stellate trichomes only; fruiting pedicels divaricate or ascending, 2-5(-6) mm, slender, not appressed to rachis   2 A. alyssoides
+ Fruit with stellate trichomes mixed with longer, simple and forked ones; fruiting pedicels erect or ascending, (1-)1.3-1.8(-2) mm, stout, subappressed to rachis   3 A. dasycarpum
       
5 (3) Fruit glabrous, 2.5-4(-4.5) mm in diam.; style 0.3-0.7 mm; seeds 1.2-1.5 mm; median filaments toothless   4 A. desertorum
+ Fruit densely stellate, (3.5-)4-6.5(-7) mm in diam.; style 0.7-1.6 mm; seeds 1.6-2 mm; median filaments 1- or 2-toothed   5 A. simplex
       
6 (1) Petal blade white; petal claws and filaments pink, papillate at base.   (7)
+ Petals and filaments yellow; claws and filaments glabrous at base.   (8)
       
7 (6) Plants often pulvinate, (1-)2-9(-12) cm tall; petals 2-3(-3.5) mm; leaf trichomes rhomboid in outline, with (3 or)4 principal minute branches from stalk apex; seeds 1.4-1.8 × 0.8-1.1 mm   9 A. canescens
+ Plants not pulvinate, (5-)8-25(-30) cm tall; petals (3-)3.5-5 mm; leaf trichomes narrowly lanceolate in outline, with only 2 principal minute branches from stalk apex; seeds (1.8-)2-2.5 × 1-1.5 mm   10 A. tenuifolium
       
8 (6) Petals (4.5-)5-7(-8) mm; fruit deeply emarginate at apex   8 A. lenense
+ Petals 1.5-3.5(-4) mm; fruit obtuse to subacute at apex.   (9)
       
9 (8) Stems erect or ascending at base, stout; sterile shoots often several; petals 2.5-3.5(-4) mm; fruit 2.5-3.5 mm wide   6 A. obovatum
+ Stems tortuous at base, slender; sterile shoots often absent; petals 1.5-3 mm; fruit (1.5-)1.8-2.5 mm wide   7 A. tortuosum

Lower Taxa


 

Related Objects  
  • PDF File
  • PDF

    Flora of China @ efloras.org
    Browse by
    Volume
    Family
    Genera
    Advanced Search


    Flora of China Home


    Checklist

     

     

     |  eFlora Home |  People Search  |  Help  |  ActKey  |  Hu Cards  |  Glossary  |