Sweet Alyssum

Cultivated as spring ornamental almost throughout Pakistan. Commonly known as `Sweet Alyssum'.

It is a good source of honey.

Perennial herbs, 10-35 cm tall, erect or suberect, branched mostly from below, ± silvery hairy with bipartite appressed hairs. Leaves linear or narrowly oblanceolate, 20-40 mm long, 3-10 mm broad, sessile, entire or obscurely toothed, usually acute. Racemes 20-30-flowered, lax and up to 20 cm long in fruit. Flowers c. 5 mm across, white or pinkish, usually ebracteate; pedicel up to 10 mm long in fruit, spreading, fitiform. Sepals c. 2 mm long. Petals c. 4 mm long, 2.5 mm broad, apex ± rounded. Stamens c. 1.5: 2 mm long; anthers c. 0.3 mm. Siliculae ovate oblongish, or obovate, 2.5-3.5 (-4) mm long, 2-2.5 mm broad (excl. c. 1 mm long style); valves slightly convex, appressedly pubescent to almost glabrous, with a distinct mid-vein; seed 1 in each locule c. 1.5 mm in diam, suborbicular-compressed with an obscure narrow wing, reddish-brown.

Herbs perennial, sometimes suffruticose, (5-)12-24(-40) cm tall, silvery pubescent. Stems erect, ascending, procumbent, or decumbent, basally branched; pubescent. Leaves linear, lanceolate, or oblanceolate, (1-)1.5-2.5(-4) cm × (0.8-)1.5-3(-6.5) mm, pubescent, base attenuate, margin entire, apex acute to subobtuse. Racemes many flowered, elongated considerably in fruit. Fruiting pedicels divaricate or ascending, straight, slender, (3-)5-7(-10) mm, pubescent. Sepals green or purple, oblong, 1.5-1.8(-2.4) × 0.5-1 mm, pubescent. Petals white or deep purple, obovate or suborbicular, 2-3 × 1.5-2.5(-3) mm, abruptly narrowed to claw; claw to 1 mm. Filaments white or purple, 1.2-2 mm; anthers ovate, 0.3-0.5 mm. Fruit ovate, elliptic, or orbicular, (2-)2.3-3(-4.2) × (1.2-)1.5-2(-3) mm; valves convex, pubescent, with a distinct midvein; style 0.4-0.6 mm. Seeds light to reddish brown, 1 per ovary, lenticular, ovate or suborbicular, (1-)1.2-1.4(-2) × (0.7-)0.9-1.1(-1.5), wingless or with a narrow wing to 0.1 mm wide. Fl. and fr. throughout the year depending on locality. 2n = 24.

Distribution: Native of the Mediterranean and Macaronesian regions, widely introduced in the world as an ornamental plant.

Cultivated in most of China, naturalized in Gansu, Hebei, Jiangsu, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanxi, Taiwan, Xinjiang, Zhejiang [native to W Mediterranean region; naturalized elsewhere].

Fl. Per.: March -June.

Stony areas, waste grounds, yards; sea level to 2000 m.

Clypeola maritima Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 2: 652. 1753; Alyssum halimifolium Linnaeus; A. maritimum (Linnaeus) Lamarck; A. minimum Linnaeus; Koniga maritima (Linnaeus) R. Brown.