Aethionema Aethionema, (L.) R. Br.

6. A. saxatile (L.) R. Br. in Aiton, Hort. Kew. ed. 2, 4: 80 (1812)

(inch A. gracile DC. , A. graecum Boiss. & Spruner , A. monospermum R. Br. , A. ovalifolium (DC.) Boiss. , and A. pyrenaicum Bout. ).

Annual to perennial up to 30 cm, ascending or erect, simple or branched. Lower leaves more than 5 mm, usually ovate or oblong and obtuse; the upper narrower, often acute. Sepals 1 - 5-3 mm; petals 2-5 mm, white, purplish or lilac. Siliculae 5-9 mm, obovate to suborbicular, emarginate, sometimes a little broader than long, up to 8-seeded, in lax or rather dense racemes; style 0-3- 1 - 5 mm, usually shorter than but sometimes equalling or exceeding notch. 2« = 48. S. & S. C. Europe, mainly in the mountains. Al Bu Cr Cz Ga Ge Gr He Hs Hu It Ju Rm Sa Si.

A. thomasianum Gay , Ann. Sci. Nat. ser. 3, 4: 81 (1845) from N.W. Italy (Valle d’ Aosta), a small plant with large, closely imbricate, erect, membranous-winged siliculae in very dense racemes, and with large, quite smooth (not tuberculate) seeds, may perhaps merit subspecific status. Almost identical plants occur in the Atlas Mountains. Many other local variants have been described as species, or variously combined as subspecies; they differ from one another in leaf-shape, petal-length, the erose or entire margin of the wings of the silicula, and in style-length. None of these variants is discrete enough to merit specific status, and their distributions do not allow of a subspecific treatment.