AURINIA SAXATILIS subsp. MEGALOCARPA

Family and Genus:- See- CRUCIFERAE

Common Names:- Golden alyssum

Homotypic Synonyms:- Alyssum orientale var. megalocarpum

Meaning:- Aurinia (Gr) Of-the-breeze. (plants of montane crags).

Saxatilis (L) Of rocks, living in rocky places.

Megalocarpa (Gr) Large-fruited.

General description:- Perennial, ascending or erect, simple or branched, often

woody at the base.

Stem:-

1) Up to 35 cm.

Leaves:-

1) Basal, dentate or sinuate-pinnatifid, sometimes entire.

2) Upper, narrower, often acute. Grey or grey-green, often with sinuate margins.

Flowers:-

1) Borne in broad, branched, rather flat-topped clusters.

2) Racemes of many, small bright yellow flowers.

3) Sepals, 1-3(-3·8) mm.

4) Petals, notched 2-6·5(-8·5) mm.

5) Style, 0·2-2 mm.

Fruit:-

1) Silicula, 6-9 x 6·5-10 mm, emarginate, up to 8-seeded, in lax or rather dense

racemes, unilocular.

2) Siliculae 3-6·5 mm, the wing 1-3 mm wide at the apex; bilocular fruits 4·5-10

mm, the wing 1·5-4 mm wide at the apex.

Key features:-

1) Petals, yellow.

2) Seeds, up to 8, 2-3 mm, the wing at least 0·3 mm.

3) Silicula, at least 6 mm; variably uni- and bilocular.

4) Valves, of silicula flat.

5) Raceme, somewhat lax.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- A chasmophyte of calcareous cliffs, but also grows in step-crevices and

on rocky slopes. 0-1400(-2000) m.

Distribution:- Southern Italy, Kithira, the Kiklades, the eastern Aegean islands and

western Turkey. Restricted to the western half of Crete, reaching its eastern limit in

a gorge near Kamares on the southern side of Psiloritis.

Flowering time:- Mar to early June.

Photos by:- Fotis Samaritakis