Family: Brassicaceae,
Mustard
Genus: Alyssum
Description
General: simple to rather freely branched biennial,
sometimes annual, mostly 10-30 cm tall, grayish, covered
with flat, star-shaped hairs.
 Leaves: alternate, numerous, narrowly oblanceolate,
entire, 5-25 mm long.
 Flowers: numerous in an elongate, narrow cluster,
without bracts at bases. Flower stalks spreading, about
3-4 mm long, eventually about equalling the fruit. Sepals
about 2 mm long, with star-shaped hairs as well as some
long, soft hairs, persistent until the fruit is nearly mature.
Petals 4, cream or white, very narrow, 3-4 mm long.
Stamens 6, the 2 shorter ones flanked by linear glands
about 1 mm long. Anthers oval.
Flowering time: May-July.
 Fruits: pods, covered with star-shaped hairs, ovate-oval
to almost round in outline, 3-4 mm long, strongly flattened
around the edges but bulged in the center over the 2 seeds
that are enclosed in each cell. The style is slightly less
than 0.5 mm long.
Distribution
Dry soil along roadsides and in disturbed areas, in w., c.
and s.e. parts of MT. A widespread weed throughout most
of the U.S. - native of Europe. |
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