''Odontarrhena'' is a large genus of flowering plants in the family

Brassicaceae Brassicaceae () or (the older but equally valid) Cruciferae () is a medium-sized and economically important Family (biology), family of flowering plants commonly known as the mustards, the crucifers, or the cabbage family. Most are herbaceous pla ...

. They were originally a separate genus and then were amalgamated into the ''Alyssum'' genus, but morphological and molecular evidence has reseparated them. Some of the genera are

nickel Nickel is a chemical element; it has symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel is a hard and ductile transition metal. Pure nickel is chemically reactive, but large pieces are slo ...

(Ni)

hyperaccumulators A hyperaccumulator is a plant capable of growing in soil or water with high concentrations of metals, absorbing them through their roots, and concentrating extremely high levels of metals in their tissues. The metals are concentrated at levels th ...

(a plant capable of growing in soil or water with very high concentrations of metals).

Description

It is similar in habit to ''Alyssum'' and has small yellow flowers, except that it has a suborbicular pouch and one seeded cells. The plants are characterised by inflorescences that are usually compound, subumbellate

raceme A raceme () or racemoid is an unbranched, indeterminate growth, indeterminate type of inflorescence bearing flowers having short floral stalks along the shoots that bear the flowers. The oldest flowers grow close to the base and new flowers are ...

s. There is a single ovule per loculus, and the fruit valves are at most only slightly inflated.

Range

Its widespread native range is from temperate

Eurasia Eurasia ( , ) is a continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. According to some geographers, Physical geography, physiographically, Eurasia is a single supercontinent. The concept of Europe and Asia as distinct continents d ...

to subarctic America. It is found in Europe (within Albania, Bulgaria, Corsica, Crete, Czechoslovakia, East Aegean Islands, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Romania, Sardina, Sicily, Switzerland and Yugoslavia), Eastern Europe (within Central European Russia, Crimea, East European Russia, North European Russia, South European Russia and Ukraine),

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(within Altai, Buryatiya, Chita Oblast, Irkutsk Oblast, Krasnoyarsk Krai, Tuva, West Siberia and Yakutskiya), the Russian Far East (within Amur Oblast, Khabarovsk Krai and Magadan Oblast), Central Asia (within Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan), the Caucasus (North Caucasus and Transcaucasus), Western Asia (Afghanistan, Cyprus, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Turkey), China (

Inner Mongolia Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of China. Its border includes two-thirds of the length of China's China–Mongolia border, border with the country of Mongolia. ...

Manchuria Manchuria is a historical region in northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day northeast China and parts of the modern-day Russian Far East south of the Uda (Khabarovsk Krai), Uda River and the Tukuringra-Dzhagdy Ranges. The exact ...

and

Xinjiang Xinjiang,; , SASM/GNC romanization, SASM/GNC: Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Sinkiang, officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the China, People' ...

Mongolia Mongolia is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south and southeast. It covers an area of , with a population of 3.5 million, making it the world's List of countries and dependencies by po ...

and also Subarctic America (within Alaska, Northwest Territories and the Yukon). The Balkan Peninsula is a major diversity center. Greece has the largest number of species; next, Albania is known to have 7 species. It is also found on the

serpentine soils Serpentine soil is an uncommon soil type produced by weathered ultramafic rock such as peridotite and its metamorphic derivatives such as serpentinite. More precisely, serpentine soil contains minerals of the serpentine subgroup, especially antig ...

Lesbos Island Lesbos or Lesvos ( ) is a Greek island located in the northeastern Aegean Sea. It has an area of , with approximately of coastline, making it the third largest island in Greece and the eighth largest in the Mediterranean. It is separated from ...

(in Greece).

Taxonomy

''Odontarrhena'' was a taxonomically difficult genus of the tribe ''Alysseae''. However, recent morphological and molecular evidence (DNA analysis) clearly showed that ''Alyssum'' and ''Odontarrhena'' are

monophyletic In biological cladistics for the classification of organisms, monophyly is the condition of a taxonomic grouping being a clade – that is, a grouping of organisms which meets these criteria: # the grouping contains its own most recent co ...

clades within the tribe ''Alysseae'', deserving separate generic status (Warwick et al. 2008; Cecchi et al. 2010; Rešetnik et al. 2013; Li et al. 2015). The genus name of ''Odontarrhena'' is derived from two Greek words; ''odous'' meaning tooth and ''arrhen'' meaning male. It was first described and published by

Carl Anton von Meyer Carl Anton von Meyer (in Russian: Карл Анто́нович фон Ме́йер, ''Karl Antonovich von Meyer'') (1 April 1795 – 24 February 1855) was a Germans, German, Russified botanist and explorer. Meyer was born in Vitebsk. He received ...

in Flora Altaica (edited by

Carl Friedrich von Ledebour Carl Friedrich von Ledebour (8 July 1786 in Stralsund – 4 July 1851 in Munich;NDB/ADB Deutsche B ...

) Vol.3 on page 58 in 1831. The genus is recognized by the

United States Department of Agriculture The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is an executive department of the United States federal government that aims to meet the needs of commercial farming and livestock food production, promotes agricultural trade and producti ...

and the

Agricultural Research Service The Agricultural Research Service (ARS) is the principal in-house research agency of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). ARS is one of four agencies in USDA's Research, Education and Economics mission area. ARS is charged with ext ...

, but they still list it as synonym of ''Alyssum'' and they only list ''Odontarrhena obovata'' as a known species.

Known species

The following list includes all species recognised by either

Plants of the World Online Plants of the World Online (POWO) is an online taxonomic database published by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. History Following the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew launched Plants of the World Online i ...

(as of January 2022) or by ''

BrassiBase BrassiBase is on online resource that documents information and research related to species within the plant family Brassicaceae. It is hosted by the University of Heidelberg. The website defines itself as "tools and biological resources for Brassic ...

'' (version 1.3, June 2020). Of these, 80 species are recognised by both databases, with the remaining 16 accepted by only one of them (this is indicated in each entry). * ''

Odontarrhena akamasica ''Odontarrhena'' is a large genus of flowering plants in the family Brassicaceae. They were originally a separate genus and then were amalgamated into the ''Alyssum'' genus, but morphological and molecular evidence has reseparated them. Some of th ...

'' * ''

Odontarrhena albiflora ''Odontarrhena'' is a large genus of flowering plants in the family Brassicaceae. They were originally a separate genus and then were amalgamated into the ''Alyssum'' genus, but morphological and molecular evidence has reseparated them. Some of th ...

'' * ''

Odontarrhena alpestris ''Odontarrhena'' is a large genus of flowering plants in the family Brassicaceae. They were originally a separate genus and then were amalgamated into the ''Alyssum'' genus, but morphological and molecular evidence has reseparated them. Some of th ...

'' * ''

Odontarrhena americana ''Odontarrhena'' is a large genus of flowering plants in the family Brassicaceae. They were originally a separate genus and then were amalgamated into the ''Alyssum'' genus, but morphological and molecular evidence has reseparated them. Some of th ...

'' ; only in Plants of the World Online; in BrassiBase it is a synonym of ''

Odontarrhena obovata ''Odontarrhena'' is a large genus of flowering plants in the family Brassicaceae. They were originally a separate genus and then were amalgamated into the ''Alyssum'' genus, but morphological and molecular evidence has reseparated them. Some of th ...

'' * ''

Odontarrhena anatolica ''Odontarrhena'' is a large genus of flowering plants in the family Brassicaceae. They were originally a separate genus and then were amalgamated into the ''Alyssum'' genus, but morphological and molecular evidence has reseparated them. Some of th ...

'' * ''

Odontarrhena argentea ''Odontarrhena'' is a large genus of flowering plants in the family Brassicaceae. They were originally a separate genus and then were amalgamated into the ''Alyssum'' genus, but morphological and molecular evidence has reseparated them. Some of th ...

'' * ''

Odontarrhena baldaccii ''Odontarrhena'' is a large genus of flowering plants in the family Brassicaceae. They were originally a separate genus and then were amalgamated into the ''Alyssum'' genus, but morphological and molecular evidence has reseparated them. Some of th ...

'' ; only in Plants of the World Online * ''

Odontarrhena bertolonii ''Odontarrhena'' is a large genus of flowering plants in the family Brassicaceae. They were originally a separate genus and then were amalgamated into the ''Alyssum'' genus, but morphological and molecular evidence has reseparated them. Some of th ...

'' * '' Odontarrhena borzaeana'' ; accepted in BrassiBase; in Plants of the World Online it is a synonym of '' Odontarrhena obtusifolia'' * '' Odontarrhena bracteata'' * '' Odontarrhena caliacrae'' ; only in Plants of the World Online; in BrassiBase it is a synonym of '' Odontarrhena tortuosa'' subsp. ''caliacrae'' * '' Odontarrhena callichroa'' * '' Odontarrhena carica'' * '' Odontarrhena cassia'' * '' Odontarrhena chalcidica'' * '' Odontarrhena chondrogyna'' * '' Odontarrhena cilicica'' * '' Odontarrhena condensata'' * '' Odontarrhena constellata'' * '' Odontarrhena corsica'' * '' Odontarrhena corymbosoidea'' * '' Odontarrhena crenulata'' * '' Odontarrhena cyprica'' * '' Odontarrhena davisiana'' * '' Odontarrhena debarensis'' * '' Odontarrhena decipiens'' ; according to Plants of the World Online; on BrassiBase it is '' Odontarrhena lurensis'' * '' Odontarrhena diffusa'' ; accepted in BrassiBase; in Plants of the World Online it is a synonym of ''

Odontarrhena subalpina ''Odontarrhena'' is a large genus of flowering plants in the family Brassicaceae. They were originally a separate genus and then were amalgamated into the ''Alyssum'' genus, but morphological and molecular evidence has reseparated them. Some of th ...

'' * '' Odontarrhena subspinosa'' * '' Odontarrhena syriaca'' * '' Odontarrhena szarabiaca'' * '' Odontarrhena tavolarae'' * '' Odontarrhena tortuosa'' * ''

Odontarrhena trapeziformis ''Odontarrhena'' is a large genus of flowering plants in the family Brassicaceae. They were originally a separate genus and then were amalgamated into the ''Alyssum'' genus, but morphological and molecular evidence has reseparated them. Some of th ...

'' * '' Odontarrhena troodi'' * '' Odontarrhena turgida'' * '' Odontarrhena virgata''

Uses

About 48 members of the ''Odontarrhena'' species, are known to be

(Ni)

(a plant capable of growing in soil or water with very high concentrations of metals). The accumulation of nickel was first discovered in the Italian endemic ''Odontarrhena bertolonii'' (syn. ''Alyssum bertolonii'' by Minguzzi and Vergnano in 1948, Of the 168 or so species of ''Alyssum'', 45 species were determined to be hyperaccumulators of nickel, all from the Odontarrhena section. The metal is found in the roots, stem, leaves and flowers of the plant.

References

Other sources

* Cecchi, L., Colzi, I., Coppi, A., Gonnelli, C. & Selvi, F. (2013) Diversity and biogeography of Ni-hyperaccumulators of Alyssum section Odontarrhena (Brassicaceae) in the central western Mediterranean: evidence from karyology, morphology and DNA sequence data. Botanical journal of the Linnaean Society 173: 269–289. * Nyárády, E.J. (1929a) ��1928”Studiu preliminar asupra unor specii de Alyssum din secţia Odontarrhena. Vorstudium über einige Arten der Section Odontarrhena der Gattung Alyssum (Forsetzung). Buletinul Gradinii Botanice si al Muzeului Botanic dela Universitatea din Cluj 8 (2–4): 152–156. {{Taxonbar, from=Q63752784 Brassicaceae Brassicaceae genera Plants described in 1845 Flora of Czechoslovakia Flora of Hungary Flora of Switzerland Flora of Corsica Flora of France Flora of Sardinia Flora of Southeastern Europe Flora of Eastern Europe Flora of Siberia Flora of the Russian Far East Flora of Central Asia Flora of the Caucasus Flora of Western Asia Flora of Saudi Arabia Flora of Subarctic America