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

Arabis alpina, Arabis merinoi, Arabis pieninica, Alpine rock-cress, ארביס קווקזי, إربس

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

Arabis alpina, Arabis merinoi, Arabis pieninica, Alpine rock-cress, ארביס קווקזי, إربس


Derivation of the botanical name:
Arabis, a Greek word used for "mustard" or "cress," and the Greek word for Arabia.
alpina, of alps, mountains.
The Hebrew word: ארביס, Arabis, transliteration from the scientific name.
  • 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 Pau is used to indicate Carlos Pau (1857 – 1937), a Spanish botanist and pharmacist.
  • The standard author abbreviation Woll. is used to indicate Eustach Woloszczak (1835 - 1918), professor at Lviv Polytechnic National University (Lemberg) Poland and is now in western Ukraine.

Arabis alpina, Arabis merinoi, Arabis pieninica, Alpine rock-cress, ארביס קווקזי, إربس

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