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Sand Rock-Cress

Sand Rock-Cress

Arabidopsis arenosa

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How common: Common

Alien species

Sand Rock-Cress is a slender plant 15–30 cm tall with small white to faintly pink flowers and long, narrow seed pods. It is usually annual or biennial (sometimes lasting longer) and favours open, sandy or gravelly places disturbed by people. Native to Central and Eastern Europe, it has spread widely along transport routes.

Did you know?

  • The stems are often tinted bluish‑purple.
  • It can look almost identical to Swedish Rock-Cress; this one tends to have slightly larger flowers.

About the species

Identification

Slender, 15–30 cm. Stems upright, branching, hairy near the base and often purplish; several stems may rise from one plant. A low ring of leaves at the base is divided into side pieces with a larger end piece and feels hairy. Leaves on the stem are coarsely toothed; the top ones can be nearly smooth-edged. Flower clusters sit at stem tips; each flower has four broad petals, white to slightly pink, about 5–8 mm long. After flowering, narrow pods 2–4 cm long develop, slightly curved and sticking out from the stem. Very similar to Swedish Rock-Cress, but with a more deeply cut base ring and slightly larger flowers. Flowers in Finland in June–July.

Plant group

Herbaceous plants

Habitat

yards and roadsides

Flowering

Jun–Jul

About the habitat

Open, dry, sandy or gravelly ground such as railways and yards, ports, roadsides, sandy lots, fallow fields and other waste places. Found across most of Finland, most frequent around Oulu and from Ostrobothnia to southern Lapland.

Sources

Photo: Mirko Ubović, CC0 1.0 https://www.gbif.org/occurrence/6179053441

Text: Pinkka: IPS-153 Flora of Subarctic Europe - Actaea-Carduus, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.38413

Text: Pinkka: BIO-513 Syventävä putkilokasvituntemus - Abies-Butomus, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.38413

Text: Pinkka: A Pohjolan kasveja - Abies-Allium, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.38413

Text: Wikipedia (Finnish), CC BY-SA 4.0 https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hietalituruoho

See also