Arabis alpina

taxobox
name = "Arabis alpina"

---

regnum = Plantae
unranked_divisio = Angiosperms
unranked_classis = Eudicots
unranked_ordo = Rosids
ordo = Brassicales
familia = Brassicaceae
genus = "Arabis"
species = "A. alpina"
binomial = "Arabis alpina"
binomial_authority = L.
synonyms = "Arabis merinoi" Pau "Arabis pieninica" Woll.|

"Arabis alpina" (Alpine rock-cress) is a flowering plant in the family Brassicaceae that grows in mountainous areas of Europe, north 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.

The stems of "A. alpina" grow up to 40 cm (16 inches) tall, and are topped with loose heads of white, four-petalled flowers. The leaves in the basal rosette are long, strongly toothed and clearly stalked, although the stem leaves are stalkless and clasp the stem.

"A. alpina" grows in damp gravels and screes, often over limestone.

"A. 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 ericaceaous belt. Another migration route lead "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 [cite journal |quotes=no |journal=Molecular Ecology |year=2006 |volume=15 |pages=825–839 |doi=10.1111/j.1365-294X.2005.02848.x |title=Three times out of Asia Minor: the phylogeography of "Arabis alpina" L. (Brassicaceae) |author=M. A. Koch, C. Kiefer, D. Ehrich, J. Vogel, C. Brochmann & K. Mummenhoff] .

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

References

External links

* [http://internt.nhm.ac.uk/jdsml/research-curation/projects/linnaean-typification/detailimage.dsml?ID=73900 The Linnean Plant Name Database] : information about the type specimen