Flora of Israel | Thlaspi perfoliatum

Thlaspi perfoliatum, Microthlaspi perfoliatum, Perfoliate Penny-cress, Cotswold pennycress

Hebrew: חופניים מצויים, Arabic: شمرمرة

Scientific name:   Thlaspi perfoliatum L.
Synonym name:   Microthlaspi perfoliatum (L.) F.K.Mey.
Common name:   Perfoliate Penny-cress, Cotswold pennycress
Hebrew name:   חופניים מצויים
Arabic name:   شمرمرة
Plant Family:   Cruciferae / Brassicaceae, מצליבים


Location: Betah Mountain, Western Galilee
Life form:   Annual
Stems:   30 cm tall, herbaceous, glabrous, glaucous, erect or branching above, from long taproot
Leaves:   Alternate, rosette, entire, smooth
Flowers:   White
Fruits / pods:   Silicle to 6 mm long, winged, heart-shaped with apex in a downward direction, notched at apex, glabrous
Flowering Period:   January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September
Habitat:   Batha, Phrygana
Distribution:   Mediterranean Woodlands and Shrublands, Semi-steppe shrublands, Montane vegetation of Mt. Hermon
Chorotype:   Med – Irano-Turanian
Summer shedding:   Ephemeral


Location: Betah Mountain, Western Galilee

Derivation of the botanical name:

Thlaspi, Greek thlaein, to crush, from the flattened silicle; the Greek name for a cress.

perfoliatum, perfoliate, leaves joined around stem.
The Hebrew name: חופניים, chovnaim (handful), because the shape of the fruit is as a pair of handles.

  • 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 F.K.Mey. is used to indicate Friedrich Karl Meyer (1926 -), a German botanist.
  • The fruits slightly resemble those of Capsella bursa-pastoris (L.) Medic. but the latter has fruits which are more triangular in shape and are smaller when mature. The leaves of both plants differ greatly from one another.
  • Pliny the Elder (23-79 CE), Book XIX 171: The Athenian word for mustard is napy, those of other dialects thlaspi and lizard-herb.
    Book XXVII 139: Thlaspi is of two kinds. One has narrow leaves, a finger in breadth and lenght, turned towards the ground, and divided at the tip.
    The stem is half a foot long, not without branches, and with seed enclosed in shield-like pods and shaped like a lentil, except that – hence comes the name- it is intented (see Dioscorides II 156). The blossom is white, and the plant grows in lanes and in hedges. The seed has a sharp taste and brings away bile and phlegm by both vomit and stools.

    • Location: Jerusalem, Gethsemane