Evergreen candytuft

Iberis sempervirens, the evergreen candytuft, is a low, mat-forming evergreen subshrub of the Brassicaceae native to rocky slopes of southern Europe and adjacent western Asia. Plants grow 15-30 cm tall and spread to 40-60 cm wide, with slender, woody-based, much-branched stems that root at the lower nodes. The dark green, glossy, narrowly oblanceolate leaves are 1-4 cm long and 3-6 mm wide, entire to slightly toothed near the apex, leathery, and persist through winter. In mid to late spring the plant produces dense, rounded, terminal corymbs 3-5 cm across of pure white, four-petalled flowers in which the two outer petals of each flower are conspicuously larger than the two inner ones — the characteristic asymmetry of the genus. The fruits are small, flattened, two-winged silicles about 5 mm long, notched at the apex. It favours dry, well-drained, calcareous soils on rocky banks, walls, and stony slopes, and is widely cultivated in temperate gardens as a rockery and edging plant.