About Alyssoides utriculata (L.) Medik.
Alyssoides is a genus of flowering plants in the Brassicaceae family that contains only one species, Alyssoides utriculata (L.) Medik. This herbaceous perennial plant is native to Southern Europe and Turkey, and it grows on dry rocky slopes and calcareous rocks. It reaches heights of 20 to 50 cm, and produces yellow flowers between April and May–July. The genus formerly included a second species, Alyssoides cretica, but after molecular phylogenetic studies conducted in 2008 and 2013, this species was reassigned to the genus Lutzia. There are two recognized subspecies of Alyssoides utriculata: A. utriculata subsp. utriculata, and A. utriculata subsp. bulgarica, which can be distinguished from one another by the pattern and shape of their hairs. Alyssoides utriculata is grown as an ornamental plant, and it is commonly called inflated bladderseed or (Greek) bladderpod in gardening. This common name is not used for this plant alone, and it should not be confused with other plant species that are also called bladderpod. The distribution of Alyssoides utriculata spans from southern France to Turkey. It can be found in the Massif Central of France, the Western Alps, the Apennines of Italy, the Dinaric Alps of Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Albania; it is also present in western Kosovo, in Serbia (on the Tara and Rtanj mountains, among other locations), in southern North Macedonia, in Greece, in Bulgaria, in southwestern Romania, and in northern Anatolia. In Greece, this plant grows from low elevations up to 2200(-2500) m; it is relatively common in northeastern Greece, found in more isolated locations in northern Greece (including Vourinos, Vermion, Olympus, and a few localities in Pindus) and central Greece (including Pentelikon, Parnis, Parnassus and Giona). In Bulgaria, it grows at elevations of 50–1900 m in Stara Planina, the Rhodopes, Strandzha and southwestern Bulgaria.
