Aubrieta deltoidea - Aubrieta - (Brassicaceae)

It's always fun and interesting to find growing in the wild a plant that we buy when back at home in order to have it in the garden! Aubrieta is one of our favourites. It manages to flower early even in the UK, and this is because, in the wild, it grows high up in the mountains and is used to inhospitable conditions like the English spring, which punishes so many other early plants.

Aubrieta

Aubrieta - a plant of rocky mountain places

Aubrieta deltoidea is a member of the Cabbage (Brassicaceae) family of plants; it is named after the artist Claude Aubriet. This species grows in the mountains, where it forms pretty cushions of flowers from March to early June.

The four-petalled flowers of this member of the Brassicaceae

This plant can be found in Crete, where the plants shown on this page were photographed. We have also seen wild Aubretia in the Gargano Peninsula in Italy.