WildBristol.uk - Discovering Wildlife in Bristol

Widespread but local throughout the UK, being absent from much of the South East and Midlands; being most common around Central Scotland, North West England (just North West of Leads), between Cambridge and Norwich and a complex around the Bristol Region, Gloucester, Oxford and Salisbury. Habitat includes: Dry, sunny, exposed sites on base-rich substrates such as chalk / limestone in places such as rocky outcrops, grassland, meadows, pastures, sand dunes, bridges, walls, roadside verges, railway banks, hedge-banks, wasteland, harbours etc. Growing habit: Biennial / Perennial. Flowers: June to August. Height: Up to 60 cm.

Stace 4:

Arabis hirsuta (L.) Scop. (A. brownii Jord.) - Hairy Rock-cress.

Tufted biennial to perennial; stems erect, to 60 cm; basal leaves short- to rather long-stalked, subentire to shallowly toothed; flowers numerous; petals 4-6mm, white; 2n=32. Native; limestone rocks and bare places in grassland, walls; locally common throughout British Isles. A. brownii is endemic to dunes in West Ireland; it is smaller, with hairs confined to leaf-margins, and more or less unwinged (not winged) seeds, and may merit ssp. status.

Key:

• Stem-leaves strongly clasping stem at base; auricles distinctly longer than stem-width
• Non-flowering shoots 0 or forming more or less sessile rosettes in compact clump
• At least some leaves with teeth or lobes, with hairs simple or branched but not medifixed
• Basal leaves subentire to slightly toothed; petals white; pedicels mostly <8mm