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Arabis

See list of 2 species in this genus

The traditionally defined Arabis has been shown to be a highly artificial genus that was composed of four different taxa in New England— Arabidopsis, Arabis s.s., Boechera, and Turritis (Al-Shehbaz 2003). It is now known that the morphological characters used to delimit Arabis s.l. evolved independently many times within the family, and features such as base chromosome number more accurately depict the evolutionary history of this group of genera (though particulars of fruit and trichome morphology do show trends between the genera). Arabis alpina L. was attributed to ME by Magee and Ahles (1999) based on a specimen taken from a private residence— Gould 17523 ( NHA!). The label provided no evidence of naturalization, and this species is not accepted here as a part of the New England flora.

  • 1a. Petals 8–10 mm long; fruiting pedicels ± spreading; siliques 12–35 mm long; leaves with entire blades (rarely with a single tooth on one or both margins), those along the stem not clasping at the base
  • 1b. Petals 3–5 mm long; fruiting pedicels erect; siliques 30–50 mm long; leaves with entire to dentate blades, usually the lower with at some form of dentition, those along the stem auriculate-clasping

 Show photos of:   Each photo represents one species in this genus.