Flora of Israel | Arabis alpina
Arabis alpina, Arabis merinoi, Arabis pieninica, Alpine rock-cress,
Hebrew: ארביס קווקזי, Arabic: إربس
| Scientific name: | Arabis alpina L. | |
| Synonym name: | Arabis merinoi Pau>/I. Arabis pieninica Wol. | |
| Common name: | Alpine rock-cress | |
| Hebrew name: | ארביס קווקזי | |
| Arabic name: | إربس | |
| Family: | Brassicaceae / Cruciferae, Cabbage Family, משפחת המצליבים |
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| Life form: | Herbaceous-chamaephytic | |
| Spinescence: | No Spinescence | |
| Stems: | Stems 5—15 cm, ascending to erect, with several leaves, an one-stemmed plant or as a loose tussock with several stems; stems and leaves moderately to densely pubescent with small, multibranched (dendroid) hairs. | |
| Leaves: | Rosette, long, dentate and clearly stalked | |
| Inflorescence: | An open raceme with 5—15 flowers, short and broad in the flowering stage, 1—3 × 1—2.5 cm, elongating markedly during fruit maturation to (4)5—6 cm. | |
| Flowers: | Regular (actinomorphic). 4 white petals, with rounded tip; 4 sepals four, with pointed tip, swollen base, and membranous margins; pistil formed from two fused carpels; 6 stamens, two of them short, four long. | |
| Fruits: | Pod, 2–3 cm long, divided in two by a membranous wall (a siliqua); fruit-stalk directed obliquely upwards ca. 1 cm long; seed brown, roundish, flat, and narrowly and imperfectly winged | |
| Flowering Period: | April, May, June | |
| Habitat: | Hard rock outcrops | |
| Distribution: | Mediterranean Woodlands and Shrublands, Mt. Hermon | |
| Chorotype: | Med – Irano-Turanian | |
| Summer shedding: | Perennating |
 Derivation of the botanical name: Arabis, a Greek word used for “mustard” or “cress,” and the Greek word for Arabia.
alpina, of alps, mountains.
 *Pictures taken in Ragunda, Sweden (see: www.flowersinsweden.com/Arabisalpina_page.htm. |