Matthiola tricuspidata - Three-horned Stock - (Brassicaceae)

Matthiola tricuspidata beside the Mediterranean Sea

Three-horned Stock on the Mediterranean shore, Crete

This is a member of the cabage (Brassicaceae) family. The fruit of the plant is what gives it its name - a siliqua (an elongated seed capsule which is peculiar to the Brassicaceae family of plants) with a distinct three-horned apex.

Three-horned Stock

Picture by kind permission of Anne Horsfall

The flowers of this low-growing plant are pink to mauve and the leaves and stems are covered with rather woolly-looking hairs. Three-horned Stock favours coastal habitats throughout the Mediterranean region, where it blooms from February to May.

The specimens shown above were photographed in Crete.