Alyssum desertorum Stapf in Denkschr. Akad. Wiss. Wien, Math.-Nat. Kl. (Wein) 51: 302. 1886. A. minimum auct. non L. 1753; Hook. f. & T. Anderson in Fl. Brit. India 1: 141. 1872.

Herbs, greyish green, annual, erect, spreading or ascending, branched from base, 4 - 20 cm high, densely covered with stellate hairs. Leaves oblanceolate or linear-lanceolate, sessile, 10 - 25 x 1 - 5 mm. Racemes 30 - 40-flowered, ebracteate. Flowers pale yellow or dull white, 1.8 - 2 mm across; pedicels up to 3 mm long in fruit. Sepals ca 1.5 mm long, caducous. Petals broad at middle, entire or obscurely emarginate at apex, ca 2.5 mm long, sparsely hairy outside. Stamens 1.5 - 2 mm long; filaments smaller and scale-like in outer two stamens. Style ca 0.5 mm long. Fruiting racemes long, dense; pedicels 2 - 5 mm long; fruits more or less orbicular, emarginate, 2.5 - 3.5 mm in diam., glabrous; valves uniformly tumid with flat, narrow margin; seeds 2 in each locule, ovate-orbicular, brown, ca 1 mm long.

Fl. & Fr. March - Sept.

Distrib. India. N.W. Himalayas. Jammu & Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh.

S.E. Europe, N. Africa, C. & S .W. Asia.