Aubrieta Adanson

44. Aubrieta Adanson 1

Perennial herbs; hairs stellate or of two kinds, stellate and unbranched, rarely glabrous. Leaves simple. Inner sepals saccate; petals pink to violet, long-clawed; filaments of the outer stamens with a dentate appendage. Fruit a siliqua, rarely a silicula; valves with a median vein; style distinct, stigma capitate. Seeds in 2 rows in each loculus.

All the species are montane or alpine, occurring on rocks and screes and in coniferous woods.

Several species are cultivated for ornament.

Species limits within the genus are critical, and the characters used to define the species require experimental investigation. Some are known to hybridize readily in cultivation, but the majority are allopatric, so that hybrids do not often occur in the wild.

Literature: J. Mattfeld, Blätt. für Staudenk. 1: fols. 1-7 (1937) and Bull. Alp. Gard. Soc. 7: 157-81, 217-27 (1939).

1 Siliqua with long unbranched hairs as well as branched hairs 1. deltoidea

1 Siliqua with stellate hairs only

2 Siliqua 20-35 mm, 6-15 times as long as wide 6. gracilis

2 Siliqua less than 20 mm, 2-6 times as long as wide

3Valves of the siliqua reticulate-veined 2. columnae

3Valves of the siliqua without veins or with only a single

median vein

4 Stem and leaves whitish-grey with very dense ± appressed

hairs (Skiros) 3. scyria

4 Stem and leaves green or grey-green; hairs ±patent, or

sparse

5 Sepals 4-5-5 mm; petals 8-11 mm, white, becoming pink or lilac (Athos) 4. erubescens

5 Sepals more than 6 mm; petals usually more than 12 mm, purple or violet, rarely white

6 Siliqua usually not more than 12 mm, 2—4(—5) times as long as wide, usually not strongly compressed

2. columnae

6 Siliqua (12—)13—18(—20) mm, usually 4-6 times as long

as wide, strongly compressed 5. intermedia