Short Description
The sand rock-cress can grow up to 40 centimetres high.
The grey-green leaves are lanceolate, deeply toothed and finely hairy. They appear to emerge directly from the ground in a rosette (basal) or are arranged singly and alternately on the stem (alternate).
The stem is erect and usually branched. The lower part is often hairy.
The flowers are clustered at the end of a racemose inflorescence. They are white or pink and have four petals. In the centre of the flower there are four long and two short stamens.
The fruits are elongated, distinctly flattened pods (actually called siliquae) that develop below the still-flowering flowers on the inflorescence axis.
Features
Sand rock-cress
Arabidopsis arenosa
deeply toothed, hairy leaves
In the city
In the city, the sand rock-cress is mainly found on dry grasslands, railway embankments and on stony gravel. It often grows in pavement cracks or on walls. It prefers nutrient-poor, calcareous soils in light-rich and dry locations.
Fun Facts
The pollination of the flowers is mostly done by insects with shortly-tubed mouthparts.
The flowering period is from April to August.
It is a biennial plant. This means that a plant lives for two years, but flowers only once and dies after the seeds have ripened.
- Endangerment level Germany: not endangered
The sand rock-cress is native to Central Europe.
The species name arenosa is Latin and means "sandy" or "sand-loving". It refers to the fact that the species often grows on sandy soil.
Sources
Habitus, Salicyna, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Arabidopsis_arenosa_2017-09-27_5073b.jpg
Blüten, Bernd Haynold, CC BY-SA 3.0 , https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Arabidopsis_arenosa_subsp._borbasii_080408b.jpg
Blätter, Salicyna, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Arabidopsis_arenosa_2017-09-27_5068.jpg
Schauer, T., Caspari, C. & Caspari, S. (2015) Der illustrierte BLV-Pflanzenführer für unterwegs. 1150 Blumen, Gräser, Bäume und Sträucher, München: BLV.
Page „Sand-Schaumkresse“. : Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Date of last revision: 16.04.2018, 18:47 UTC. URL: https://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sand-Schaumkresse&oldid=176581189 (Accessed: 26.04.2018).