February 23, 2020

Hutchinsia



This plant of the Cabbage (Brassicaceae) family is a camouflage champion; notwithstanding its abundant flowering it is difficult to find it where it grows between mosses and small grasses.





Sometimes it is really really tiny.





Also, it flowers only during a short time, even if there are many flowers.





In its natural habitat, between rocks and stones and scree on a dry limestone slope you don't suspect the presence of many plants. And it is also rare in Perigord.





For all those reasons you don't find too often Hutchinsia (Horningia petraea).






But now it flowers already in February; the weather is simply too good for not doing it. Hutchinsia has a rosette of deeply incised leaves sometimes a bit reddish. The flowers have four white petals, between which the oval spoon-shaped fruits can already be seen. Everything goes very quickly with the little spring Brassicaceae!