SPECIES DESCRIPTION
ARABIDOPSIS THALIANA
Family and Genus:- See- CRUCIFERAE
Common Name:- Thale cress
Homotypic Synonym:- For a full list of Homotypic Synonyms click here.
Meaning:- Arabidopsis (L) Resembling Arabis
Thaliana (L) For Johannes Thal (1542-83), German botanist.
General description:- Slender, erect annual.
Stems:-
1) 10- 40 cm, sometimes branched from the base, sparsely pubescent in the lower
parts with mostly unbranched hairs on the stem.
Leaves:-
1) With 2(3)-fid hairs.
2) Basal, entire or dentate, in a persistent rosette, elliptic-ovate to spathulate.
3) Cauline, few usually entire, sessile, cuneate at the base.
Flowers:-
1) Inflorescence, a simple raceme,much elongating in fruit.
2) Petals, 3-4 mm, spathulate, white to cream.
3) Stamens, 4-6.
4) Anthers, 0·3-0·5 mm.
5) Style, 0·3-0·5 mm.
Fruit:-
1) Siliqua 10-20 x 0·5-1 mm, glabrous, attenuate into the style.
2) Seeds in 1 row, minute (c.0.5 mm) pale reddish-brown.
3) Fruiting pedicels and siliquae patent to ascending.
Key features:-
1) Pubescent or hispid, at least at the base.
2) Petals 2-4(-4·5) mm.
3) Siliqua 5-20(-30) x 0·5-0·8 mm, laterally compressed.± attenuate into the style.
4) Anthers 0·3-0·5 mm.
Habitat:- In a variety in dry open habitats, often ephemeral. 0-1200(-2100) m.
Distribution:- Throughout mainland Greece, but less common in the W and far NE.
Temperate Eurasia, widely introduced and naturalised elsewhere. Limited
distribution on Crete, mainly in the four main massifs.
Flowering time:- Mar-May, occasionally later.
Photos by:- Courtesy of Wiki-Commons
