Botanical name: Ptilotrichum canescens    Family: Brassicaceae (Mustard family)
Synonyms: Alyssum canescens, Anodontea canescens, Stevenia canescens

Himalayan Alyssum is a curious Himalayn cousin of the common garden flower Sweet Alyssum. It is a small perennial herb, laxly clustered, almost erect, 5-10 cm tall, branched mostly from the base, clothed with star-shaped and branched prostrate hairs. Leaves are linear, stalkless, 5-15 mm long, 1-2.5 mm broad. Flowers are borne in 10-20-flowered racemes, up to 6 cm long in fruit, ebracteate. Flowers are about 4 mm across, white or pinkish; flower-stalk up to 8 mm long in fruit, thread-like, somewhat erect. Petals are about 3.5 mm long, 2.5 mm broad. Stamens about 2-3 mm long; filaments not appendaged. Sepals are about 2.5 mm long, 1.5 mm broad. Fruits are 3-5 mm long, 2-3 mm broad (exclusing 1-1.5 mm long style), ovate-oblong, somewhat inflated uniformly, tip pointed, entire, densely velvet-hairy; seed 1 in each locule, about 2 mm long, ovate-oblong, brown. Himalayan Alyssum is found in SW Siberia to China and W Himalaya, at altitudes of 1000-5000 m. Flowering: May-September.

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The flower labeled Himalayan Alyssum is ...