It is now known that sweet alyssum is native to the lands around the Mediterranean and on the Canary Islands. It is a plant at home near the sea, on disturbed soils and rocky land.  Sweet alyssum is a member of the Brassicaceae, the crucifer or mustard family.

Sweet alyssum freely branches forming a mound of narrow, light to medium green leaves. It produces flowers on terminal racemes (the tips of the branches). The flowers are 4-petaled or cross-shaped and typical of the crucifers. The flowers have a light, sweet, honey fragrance which makes them a pleasing addition to beds or combo pots (pots with a mix of plants) near a patio or deck.

Sweet alyssum is more than just a pleasant experience for the nose. It is also an agreeable companion for other plants in the garden. The flowers are important to beneficial solitary bees and wasps. The larval stages of the wasps are parasitic on caterpillars, but the adults feast on pollen and nectar.

Denise Johanowicz and Everett Mitchell (2000) found that parasitic wasps had greater longevity when supplied with sweet alyssum flowers than with honey as a food source. Sweet alyssum planted among vegetables helps keep the parasitic wasps around the garden and the parasitic wasps help keep the cabbage loopers, inch worms and other caterpillars in check.

 

(Compiled from: Hortus Third, Staff L.H. Bailey Hortorium, NY State College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Cornell University, Macmillan, NY, 1976; Species Plantarum, Vol. 2, Caroli Linnaei, 1753, published to the internet by Botanicus, Missouri Botanical Garden Library, 2008; and “Effects of Sweet Alyssum Flowers on the Longevity of the Parasitoid Wasps Cotesia marginiventris (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) and Diadegma insulare (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae)”, D.L. Johanowicz and E.R. Mitchell, Florida Entomologist, Vol.83, No.1, March, 2000)