Arabis_alpina

<i>Arabis alpina</i>

Arabis alpina

Species of flowering plant

Quick Facts Arabis alpina, Scientific classification ...

Arabis alpina, the Alpine rock-cress, is a flowering plant in the family Brassicaceae, native to mountainous areas of Europe, North and East Africa, Central and Eastern Asia and parts of North America. In the British Isles, it is only known to occur in a few locations in the Cuillin Ridge of the Isle of Skye. It inhabits damp gravels and screes, often over limestone.

Description

The stems grow up to 40 cm (16 inches) tall, and are topped with loose heads of white, four-petalled flowers. Flowers bloom in spring. The leaves in the basal rosette are long, strongly toothed and clearly stalked, although the stem leaves are stalkless and clasp the stem. It is a perennial herb.[1] The plant attracts butterflies.[2]

Taxonomy

Arabis alpina is believed to have originated in Asia Minor about 2 million years ago. From there it migrated twice into East Africa (500,000 years ago) where it grows today on the high East African mountains in the ericaceous belt. Another migration route led A. alpina into Europe which was then colonised periglacially. In genetic terms, the highest diversity is found in Asia Minor. In central and northern Europe, A. alpina seems to be genetically quite uniform.[3]

There is growing interest to develop Arabis alpina as a model organism for genetics, population genetics, and molecular biology.[4] The first genetic linkage map has been created and the first phenotypes, especially perenniality, are tackled by QTL mapping.

Subdivision

A former subspecies, A. alpina subsp. caucasica, is now recognised as a separate species, Arabis caucasica.

See also

References

  1. [1]
    "Arabis alpina - Plant Finder". www.missouribotanicalgarden.org. Retrieved 2022-01-10.
  2. [2]
    "Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center - The University of Texas at Austin". www.wildflower.org. Retrieved 2022-01-11.
  3. [3]
    M. A. Koch; C. Kiefer; D. Ehrich; J. Vogel; C. Brochmann; K. Mummenhoff (2006). "Three times out of Asia Minor: the phylogeography of Arabis alpina L. (Brassicaceae)". Molecular Ecology. 15 (3): 825–39. doi:10.1111/j.1365-294X.2005.02848.x. PMID 16499705. S2CID 8689166.
  4. [4]
    Wötzel, Stefan; Andrello, Marco; Albani, Maria C.; Koch, Marcus A.; Coupland, George; Gugerli, Felix (February 2022). "Arabis alpina : A perennial model plant for ecological genomics and life‐history evolution". Molecular Ecology Resources. 22 (2): 468–486. doi:10.1111/1755-0998.13490. ISSN 1755-098X. PMC 9293087. PMID 34415668.
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