Hornungia alpina Chamois Cress
This small usually low growing member of the Brassicaceae family is common in the Alps, Pyrenees, the mountains of northern Spain, central Italy and a few places in the Balkans. The shiny slightly succulent pinnate leaves are typical. It is said to have slightly fragrant flowers.
Taxonomy: Chamois Cress appears under several scientific synonyms such as Lepidium alpina, Pritzelago alpina, Hutchinsia alpina and Noccaea alpina in various books about wild flowers, some Floras and in garden catalogues, web sites and nurseries.
Taxonomic work (1997) by Oliver Appel and Al Shehbaz in Novon Volume 7: Generic limits and Taxonomy of Hornungia, Pritzelago and Hymenolobus suggests that the lack of consistent characters between these genera suggest they should all be placed in Hornungia which is the oldest validly published name for this species. Hutchinsia which has been used in many publications (and previously on this web site) is for various reasons an illegal name in this context which is why some Floras changed back from Hutchinsia to the older Pritzelago generic name before this study was published.
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| Hornungia alpina Chamois Cress | Hornungia alpina Chamois Cress in fruit |
LHS: Near El Pressons lake, Andorra 20th June 2012 RHS: Near Gares, Dolomites 1st July 2014, updated 11th November 2014
Added on 7th July 2014