Small Alison (Alyssum alyssoides)

Young small Alisons in flower
Young small Alisons in flower

Small Alison fact file

Small Alison description

KingdomPlantae
PhylumAnthophyta
ClassMagnoliopsida
OrderCapparales
FamilyBrassicaceae
GenusAlyssum (1)

Small Alison produces small, pale yellow flowers, which often become whitish as they fade with age (4). The seeds are reddish-brown in colour. The greyish-green leaves measure between 6 and 30 (occasionally up to 40) millimetres in length, are oblong becoming narrower towards the base, forming a stalk (4). The genus name Alyssum and the common name Alison both originate from the description of a plant called 'alysson' as a cure for hiccups by the First Century AD Greek physician Dioscorides. Other early physicians thought that the plant was able to heal madness and rabies (5).

Size
Stem height: 7 - 30 cm (rarely 50 cm) (2)
Top

Small Alison biology

Small Alison is an annual species. It is a 'winter annual', germinating in the autumn, over-wintering as rosettes, and coming into flower early the next summer. The flowers do not produce nectar, and they are not visited by insects as a result (2). It is probably largely self-pollinated (4).

Top

Small Alison range

Small Alison has been widely recorded in lowland England, and is also occasionally scattered in Scotland, Wales and Ireland (4). It is probably native throughout much of Europe but is introduced in the north. It also occurs as a native eastward to Afghanistan and the Near East and North Africa, and has been widely introduced elsewhere in the world (4).

You can view distribution information for this species at the National Biodiversity Network Gateway.

Top

Small Alison habitat

Small Alison is strongly associated with fields, especially clover fields, and to a lesser extent with railways. It has also been recorded from roadsides, waste ground, docks, gravel pits and tracks (4).

Top

Small Alison status

Fully protected in Great Britain by the Wildlife and Countryside Act, 1981 (3).

Top

Small Alison threats

This plant began to be frequently recorded from the 1830s onwards, with records peaking at about the turn of the century, and then declining to a general low level with very few recent records; it is only persistent now in one site. The increase in records was probably associated with increasing seed imports from Eastern Europe for the crop rotation farming system, and the decline is probably associated with the introduction of quality control and regulation of agricultural seed sales, which stopped weed seeds being imported with crops. Small Alison is not particularly persistent in Britain, possibly due to sub-optimal climate and/or habitats (6) (7).

Top

Small Alison conservation

This species receives full legal protection under Schedule 8 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act, 1981 (3). It is also included in English Nature's Species Recovery Programme.

There may be further information about this species available via the National Biodiversity Network Gateway.

Top

Find out more

For more on the small Alison see:

  • Preston, C.D., Pearman, D.A. and Dines, T.D. (2002) Oxford University Press, London.
  • Botanical Society of the British Isles:
    www.bsbi.org.uk/

Top

Authentication

Information authenticated by Tim Rich of the National Museums and Galleries of Wales.

Top

Glossary

Annual
Lives or grows for just one year.
Genus
A category used in taxonomy, which is below ‘family’ and above ‘species’. A genus tends to contain species that have characteristics in common. The genus forms the first part of a ‘binomial’ Latin species name; the second part is the specific name.
Germination
The beginning of growth, usually following a period of dormancy and in response to favourable conditions. For example, the sprouting of a seedling from a seed.
Top

References

  1. UNEP-WCMC database (September, 2008)
    http://www.unep-wcmc.org/species/dbases/about.cfm
  2. Stace, C. (1991) The New Flora of the British Isles. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
  3. JNCC (September, 2002)
    http://www.jncc.gov.uk/default.aspx?page=1377
  4. Karran, A.B. and Rich, T.C.G. (2003) Geographical and temporal distributions of Alyssum alyssoides and Berteroa incana (Brassicaceae) in the British Isles. Watsonia, 24: 499 - 506.
  5. Dictionary of Botanical Epithets (September, 2002)
    http://www.winternet.com/~chuckg/dictionary/dictionary.21.html
  6. English Nature. Species Recovery Programme. (September, 2002)
    http://www.english-nature.org.uk/science/srp/srp2.htm
  7. Rich, T.C.G. (1991) Cruciferas of Great Britain and Ireland. BSBI Handbook no. 6. Botanical Society of the British Isles, London.

More »Related species

Alyssum (Alyssum pyrenaicum)Morettia (Morettia canescens)Savignya (Savignya parviflora)Scottish scurvygrass (Cochlearia officinalis subsp. scotica)Cotswold pennycress (Thlaspi perfoliatum)Tower mustard (Arabis glabra)Lundy cabbage (Coincya wrightii)Mountain scurvygrass (Cochlearia micacea)

Please donate to ARKive today

Help us share the wonders of the natural world. Donate today!

Sign up to our newsletter

Get the latest wild news direct to your inbox.

Get involved

ARKive relies on its media donors to donate photos and videos. Can you help? There are plenty of other ways you can get involved too!

X
Close

Image credit

Young small Alisons in flower  
Young small Alisons in flower

© Bob Gibbons / Natural Image

Natural Image
24 Newborough Rd
Wimborne
Dorset
BH21 1RD
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0) 1202 675 916
Fax: +44 (0) 1202 848 419
bobgibbons@btinternet.com

X
Close

Link to this photo

ARKive species - Small Alison (Alyssum alyssoides) Embed this ARKive thumbnail link by copying and pasting the code below.

Terms of Use - The displayed thumbnail may be used as a link from your website to ARKive's online content for private, scientific, conservation or educational purposes only. It may NOT be used within Apps.

Read more about

X
Close

MyARKive

MyARKive offers the scrapbook feature to signed-up members, allowing you to organize your favourite ARKive images and videos and share them with friends.

X
Close

Terms and Conditions of Use of Materials

Copyright in this website and materials contained on this website (Material) belongs to Wildscreen or its licensors.

Visitors to this website (End Users) are entitled to:

  • view the contents of, and Material on, the website;
  • download and retain copies of the Material on their personal systems in digital form in low resolution for their own personal use;
  • teachers, lecturers and students may incorporate the Material in their educational material (including, but not limited to, their lesson plans, presentations, worksheets and projects) in hard copy and digital format for use within a registered educational establishment, provided that the integrity of the Material is maintained and that copyright ownership and authorship is appropriately acknowledged by the End User.

End Users shall not copy or otherwise extract, alter or manipulate Material other than as permitted in these Terms and Conditions of Use of Materials.

Additional use of flagged material

Green flagged material 

Certain Material on this website (Licence 4 Material) displays a green flag next to the Material and is available for not-for-profit conservation or educational use. This material may be used by End Users, who are individuals or organisations that are in our opinion not-for-profit, for their not-for-profit conservation or not-for-profit educational purposes. Low resolution, watermarked images may be copied from this website by such End Users for such purposes. If you require high resolution or non-watermarked versions of the Material, please contact Wildscreen with details of your proposed use.

Creative commons material

Certain Material on this website has been licensed to Wildscreen under a Creative Commons Licence. These images are clearly marked with the Creative Commons buttons and may be used by End Users only in the way allowed by the specific Creative Commons Licence under which they have been submitted. Please see http://creativecommons.org for details.

Any other use

Please contact the copyright owners directly (copyright and contact details are shown for each media item) to negotiate terms and conditions for any use of Material other than those expressly permitted above. Please note that many of the contributors to ARKive are commercial operators and may request a fee for such use.

Save as permitted above, no person or organisation is permitted to incorporate any copyright material from this website into any other work or publication in any format (this includes but is not limited to: websites, Apps, CDs, DVDs, intranets, extranets, signage, digital communications or on printed materials for external or other distribution). Use of the Material for promotional, administrative or for-profit purposes is not permitted.