Arabidopsis thaliana | Thale Cress

Arabidopsis thaliana, Arabis thaliana, Stenophragma thalianum, Thale Cress, Mouse-ear cress,
Hebrew: תודרנית לבנה, Arabic: رشاد أذن الفأر

Scientific name:   Arabidopsis thaliana (L.) Heynh.
Synonym name:   Arabis thaliana L., Stenophragma thalianum (L.) Celak.
Common name:   Thale Cress, Mouse-ear cress
Hebrew name:   תודרנית לבנה, Tudranit lewana
Arabic name:   رشاد أذن الفأر
Family:   Brassicaceae / Cruciferae, Cabbage Family, משפחת המצליבים


Life form:   Annual
Stems:   Height 10–30 cm, erect, slender, usually unbranched, hairy
Leaves:   Basal rosette green to purplish leaves, serrated; stem leaves, unstalked, entire margin; leaves covered with trichomes
Flowers:   White or yellowish flowers arranged in a corymb
Flowering Period:   April, May, June
Fruits:   Pod, 1–1.5 cm long, divided in two by a membranous wall (a siliqua); spreading, curved, and flattened on upper side; Fruit-stalk about half the length of the siliqua, pointing obliquely upwards; Seed yellowish
Habitat:   Batha, Phrygana
Distribution:   Mediterranean Woodlands and Shrublands, Mt. Hermon
Chorotype:   Med-Euro-Siberian
Summer shedding:   Ephemeral


Derivation of the botanical name:

Arabidopsis, arabis, a Greek word used for “mustard” or “cress,” and the Greek word for Arabia; resembling Arabis.

thaliana, after Johannes Thal (1542 – 1583), who discovered this species in the Harz Mountains and originally called it Pilosella siliquosa.
Stenophragma, stenos στενοϛ narrow, straight; phragma, a fence or screen; a narrow fence.
The Hebrew name: Tudranit comes to indicate a kind of small tudra (Sisymbrium), although systematically the genus is close to Arabis rather than Sisymbrium.The name “Tudra”, as the plant’s Hebrew name, was first mentioned in a dictionary for the plants of the Land of Israel published by the Hebrew Language Committee in 1946, where it appears in the pronunciation: “Tudara” which was later renamed “Tudra”.

  • The standard author abbreviation L. is used to indicate Carl Linnaeus (1707 – 1778), a Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist, the father of modern taxonomy.
  • The standard author abbreviation Heynh. is used to indicate Gustav Heynhold (1800 – 1860), a German botanist.
  • The standard author abbreviation Čelak. is used to indicate Ladislav Josef Čelakovský (1834 – 1902), a Czech botanist.




*Pictures taken in Ragunda, Sweden (see: www.flowersinsweden.com/Arabidopsisthaliana_page.htm.)