Brassicaceae or Cruciferae is a medium-sized and economically important family of flowering plants commonly known as the mustards, the crucifers, or the cabbage family. Most are herbaceous plants, while some are shrubs. They have simple alternatingly-set leaves, without stipules, or in leaf rosettes. Their inflorescences are terminal and bractless. Their flowers have four free sepals, four free alternating petals, two shorter free stamens and four longer free stamens. Their fruit has seeds in rows, divided by a thin wall.
Arabidopsis (rockcress) is a genus in the family Brassicaceae. They are small flowering plants related to cabbage and mustard. This genus is of great interest since it contains thale cress, one of the model organisms used for studying plant biology and the first plant to have its entire genome sequenced. Changes in thale cress are easily observed, making it a very useful model.
Lunaria, common names honesty, dollar plant, money-in-both-pockets, money plant, moneywort, moonwort, and silver dollar; is a genus of flowering plants in the family Brassicaceae. It is native to central and southern Europe and North America. Species include:
Hesperis is a genus of flowering plants in the family Brassicaceae. Most are native to Eurasia, with several endemic to Greece & Turkey. Many plants of this genus bear showy, fragrant flowers in shades of purple and white. One of the more widely known species is the common garden flower Hesperis matronalis. The genus name Hesperis was probably given because the scent of the flowers becomes more conspicuous towards evening.
Cardamine is a large genus of flowering plants in the mustard family, Brassicaceae, known as bittercresses and toothworts. It contains more than 200 species of annuals and perennials. Species in this genus can be found worldwide, except the Antarctic, in diverse habitats. The name Cardamine is derived from the Greek kardaminē, water cress, from kardamon, pepper grass.
Pieris, the whites or garden whites, is a widespread now almost cosmopolitan genus of butterflies of the family Pieridae. The highest species diversity is in the Palearctic, with a higher diversity in Europe and eastern North America than the similar and closely related Pontia. The females of many Pieris butterflies are UV reflecting, while the male wings are strongly UV absorbing due to pigments in the scales.
Lepidium is a genus of plants in the mustard/cabbage family, Brassicaceae. The genus is widely distributed in the Americas, Africa, Asia, Europe, and Australia. It includes familiar species such as garden cress, maca, and dittander. General common names include peppercress, peppergrass, pepperweed, and pepperwort. Some species form tumbleweeds. The genus name Lepidium is a Greek word meaning 'small scale', which is thought to be derived from a folk medicine usage of the plant to treat leprosy, which cause small scales on the skin. Another meaning is related to the small scale-like fruit.
Barbarea vulgaris, also called wintercress, or alternatively herb barbara, rocketcress, yellow rocketcress, winter rocket, yellow rocket, and wound rocket, is a biennial herb of the genus Barbarea, belonging to the family Brassicaceae.
Alyssoides is a genus of flowering plants in the family Brassicaceae containing a single species, Alyssoides utriculata. A herbaceous perennial plant native to Southern Europe and Turkey, it grows on dry rocky slopes and on calcareous rocks, reaching heights of 20 to 50 cm and blooming with yellow flowers between April and May–July.
Draba verna the spring draba, shadflower, nailwort, common whitlowgrass, vernal whitlow grass, early witlow grass or whitlow-grass is a species of plant in the mustard family, Brassicaceae. D. verna has the unique trait of bifid petals, not found anywhere else in the genus Draba. The plant consists of a few flowers with branching stems and the leaves are focused around the base of the plant. The seeds are located in the flower but are not equipped with any sort of wind dispersal adaptation.
Odontarrhena chondrogyna is a species of perennial flowering plants in the family Brassicaceae. It was previously included in the genus Alyssum, and hence named Alyssum chondrogynum, but was assigned to the newly established Odontarrhena after molecular phylogeny studies from the 2010s. It is endemic to the island of Cyprus, where it grows on rocky serpentinised slopes.
Fourraea alpina is a species of flowering plant in the family Brassicaceae, and the only member of the genus Fourraea. It is native to Europe, where its range extends from Spain in the west to Croatia in the east, and from Belgium and Czechia in the north to Italy in the south.
Hormathophylla is a genus of flowering plants in the family Brassicaceae, native to the western Mediterranean; Morocco, Algeria, Spain, France and Italy. Perennial shrubs, they are adapted to dry, alkaline soils with high levels of magnesium.
Murbeckiella is a genus of 5 species of flowering plants in the mustard family Brassicaceae. The species of the genus are native to mountainous areas in Southern Europe, the Caucasus and Northwest Africa.
Parlatoria is a monotypic genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Brassicaceae. It just contains one species, Parlatoria cakiloideaBoiss.
Alyssum minutum is a species of flowering plant in the genus Alyssum, family Brassicaceae, native to the Mediterranean and Eastern Europe.
Odontarrhena is a large genus of flowering plants in the family Brassicaceae. They were originally a separate genus and then were amalgamated into the Alyssum genus, but then morphological and molecular evidence has reseperated them. Some of the genera are nickel (Ni) hyperaccumulators.
Lutzia cretica is a species of herbaceous plant endemic to the Aegean Islands of Greece. It is the only species in the genus Lutzia, which belongs to the cabbage family Brassicaceae.
Iberis saxatilis, the rock candytuft, is a species of flowering plant in the family Brassicaceae, native to southern Europe and northwest Africa. The species is typically used as an ornamental rock and alpine garden perennial plant because of its decorative flowers and cascading growth habit. Iberis is so named because many members of the genus come from the Iberian Peninsula in south west Europe. The species name saxatilis means "growing among rocks," referring to the preferred substrate of this species.
Alyssum serpyllifolium, the thyme-leaved alison, is a species of flowering plant in the family Brassicaceae, native to the western Mediterranean region. It is adapted to serpentine soils. The Royal Horticultural Society recommends it for rock gardens.
