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Mouse Ear Cress
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Mouse Ear Cress
ative Photo: Sushain Babu
Common name: Mouse Ear Cress, Thale cress
Botanical name: Arabidopsis thaliana    Family: Brassicaceae (Mustard family)
Synonyms: Arabis thaliana, Sisymbrium thalianum

Mouse Ear Cress is an annual herb, 5-20 cm tall, erect, simple or branched, usually from the base. It is often hairy below and hairless above with short, branched or simple hairs. Basal leaves form a rosette, obovate-oblong, 1.5-5 cm long, 0.5-1 cm broad, nearly stalkless, slightly to distinctly toothed or entire. Upper leaves are short, distant, oblong or linear, wedge-shaped below, stalkless, entire or obscurely toothed. Flowers racemes are 15-30-flowered, up to 20 cm long in fruit. Flowers are 2-3 mm across, white or pale pinkish. Flower-stalks are 8-15 mm long in fruit, threadlike, subspreading or upward-pointing. Sepals are 1.5-2 mm long. Petals are 3-4 mm long, 1 mm broad. Stamens are 6 or 4, about 1.5-2.5 mm long (outer 2 sometimes suppressed). Fruits are 1.2-1.8 cm long, 1 mm broad, linear, cylindrical, often somewhat upcurved. Mouse Ear Cress is native to temperate Eurasia and part of Africa. It is found in the Himalayas up to 2300 m. Flowering: April-June.

Identification credit: Gurcharan Singh Photographed in Bijnor, U.P. & Kalatope-Khajjiar Wildlife Sanctuary, Chamba, Himachal Pradesh.

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