Perennials [biennials, subshrubs]; (caudex woody); not scapose; pubescent, trichomes minutely stalked to sessile, stellate, 6–10-rayed [lepidote]. Stems erect or ascending, often (paniculately) branched distally. Leaves basal and cauline; petiolate; basal rosulate, petiolate (petioles deeply grooved), blade margins repand, sinuate, dentate, or pinnatifid; cauline petiolate, blade (much smaller than basal), margins entire [dentate, sinuate]. Racemes (corymbose, several-flowered, buds globose), slightly or considerably elongated in fruit. Fruiting pedicels divaricate or ascending, slender. Flowers: sepals spreading, ovate, lateral pair not saccate basally; petals yellow [white], obovate to spatulate, claw slightly differentiated from blade, (apex emarginate, [2-fid or obtuse]); stamens tetradynamous; filaments dilated (winged or minutely appendaged) basally; anthers ovate; nectar glands lateral, 1 on each side of lateral stamen. Fruits sessile, ellipsoid to obovoid, or broadly obovate to orbicular [globose, elliptic], not torulose, terete or latiseptate; valves each not veined, glabrous [pubescent]; replum rounded; septum usually complete, rarely perforate; ovules 4–8(–16) per ovary; stigma capitate, usually 2-lobed, rarely subentire. Seeds uniseriate or biseriate, flattened, winged [not winged], suborbicular [orbicular or elliptic]; seed coat not mucilaginous when wetted; cotyledons incumbent or oblique. x = 8.

Distribution

c, se Europe (Caucasus), sw Asia.

Discussion

Species 10 (2 in the flora).

Selected References

Dudley, T. R. 1966. Ornamental madworts (Alyssum) and the correct name of the goldentuft alyssum. Arnoldia (Jamaica Plain) 26: 33–48.

Lower Taxa

Aurinia petraea, Aurinia saxatilis

Key

1	Fruits ellipsoid to obovoid, inflated; seeds 1.5-1.8 mm diam.; wing 0.1-0.3 mm wide.	Aurinia petraea
1	Fruits broadly obovate to orbicular, flattened; seeds 2-3 mm diam.; wing 0.3-1.1 mm wide.	Aurinia saxatilis