1. Aubrieta deltoidea (L.) DC. (purple alyssum, aubrietia)
Pl. 314 f, g;
Map 1316
Plants perennial herbs, terrestrial. Stems (5–)10–30 cm long, spreading or
creeping, usually somewhat branched from the base, sometimes forming clumps or
mats, sparsely to densely pubescent with unbranched and stalked, branched,
and/or stellate hairs. Leaves alternate, (0.5–)1.0–3.0 cm long, sessile, the bases
not clasping, broadly spatulate, oblanceolate, to narrowly obovate, the margins
entire or coarsely few-toothed, sparsely to densely pubescent with branched and
stellate hairs mixed on the lower surface with much fewer unbranched hairs.
Inflorescences racemes or few-branched panicles, the lower branches subtended
by reduced leaves. Sepals 6–10 mm long, ascending, oblong, hairy. Petals 12–28
mm long, unlobed, reddish purple. Styles 4–8 mm long. Fruits spreading to
ascending, 6–18 mm long, 2–5 times as long as wide, narrowly oblong to
elliptic, somewhat flattened parallel to the septum, hairy, dehiscing
longitudinally, each valve with a midnerve. Seeds in 2 rows in each locule, 1.2–1.5
mm long, ovoid, the surface roughened, black. 2n=16. April–June.
Introduced, known only from Boone County (native of Europe, rarely escaped in the U.S.).
Disturbed ground.
Aubrieta deltoidea is commonly cultivated in flower beds and rock
gardens, and various hybrids and cultivars exist. It is unknown whether plants
have become naturalized at the single locality reported by Dunn (1982), and
this species perhaps should not be regarded as a member of the flora.