Reseda albaL.

white mignonettewhite upright mignonette

WFO wfo-0000462056 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Reseda alba, photographed by Quentin Groom
fig. a Quentin Groom, CC0 1.0 / 2022-05-17 / obs. 198342560
Reseda alba, photographed by Quentin Groom
fig. b Quentin Groom, CC0 1.0 / obs. 197815123
Reseda alba, photographed by Donald Davesne
fig. c Donald Davesne, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 196072937
Reseda alba, photographed by Eleftherios Katsillis
fig. d Eleftherios Katsillis, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 189801434
Reseda alba, photographed by Katrin Simon
fig. e Katrin Simon, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 188830426
Reseda alba, photographed by John Lyden
fig. f John Lyden, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 186888965
Reseda alba, photographed by Grzegorz Grzejszczak
fig. g Grzegorz Grzejszczak, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 199040984
Reseda alba, photographed by Karim Haddad
fig. h Karim Haddad, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 131381959

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 27 botanical countries

Regions where Reseda alba is native: Algeria, Egypt, Eritrea, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, Cyprus, East Aegean Is., Iran, Iraq, Lebanon-Syria, Palestine, Sinai, Türkiye, Albania, Baleares, Corse, France, Greece, Italy, Kriti, NW. Balkan Pen., Portugal, Sardegna, Sicilia, Spain, Türkiye-in-Europe AlgeriaEgyptEritreaLibyaMoroccoTunisiaCyprusEast Aegean Is.IranIraqLebanon-SyriaPalestineSinaiTürkiyeAlbaniaCorseFranceGreeceItalyKritiNW. Balkan Pen.PortugalSiciliaSpainTürkiye-in-Europe BalearesSardegna
Native distribution of Reseda alba, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Albania ALB EUROPE
Baleares BAL
Corse COR
France FRA
Greece GRC
Italy ITA
Kriti KRI
NW. Balkan Pen. YUG
Portugal POR
Sardegna SAR
Sicilia SIC
Spain SPA
Türkiye-in-Europe TUE
Cyprus CYP ASIA-TEMPERATE
East Aegean Is. EAI
Iran IRN
Iraq IRQ
Lebanon-Syria LBS
Palestine PAL
Sinai SIN
Türkiye TUR
Algeria ALG AFRICA
Egypt EGY
Eritrea ERI
Libya LBY
Morocco MOR
Tunisia TUN

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Flowering 379 in flower of 420 examined

Peak flowering in Apr. Each bar is the share of Reseda alba observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 379 of 420 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 4 months have fewer than 5 examined observations, so no proportion is drawn for them. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Also published as 38 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Eresda alba (L.) Spach
  • Reseda alba f. hookeri (Guss.) Heldr.
  • Reseda alba f. maritima (Müll.Arg.) Batt.
  • Reseda alba prol. myriophylla (Ten.) Rouy & Foucaud
  • Reseda alba prol. platystachya Rouy & Foucaud
  • Reseda alba subsp. angustifolia Formánek
  • Reseda alba subsp. eu-alba Maire
  • Reseda alba subsp. maritima (Müll.Arg.) Maire
  • Reseda alba subsp. paui Sennen
  • Reseda alba var. firma Müll.Arg.
  • Reseda alba var. hexapetala DC. ex Müll.Arg.
  • Reseda alba var. hookeri (Guss.) Fiori
  • Reseda alba var. laetevirens Müll.Arg.
  • Reseda alba var. macrantha DC. ex Müll.Arg.
  • Reseda alba var. major Boiss. ex Müll.Arg.
  • Reseda alba var. maritima Müll.Arg.
  • Reseda alba var. minor Müll.Arg.
  • Reseda alba var. myriosperma (Murb.) Abdallah & de Wit
  • Reseda alba var. pentodon Svent. & Marcet
  • Reseda alba var. subtrimera Maire & Sam.
  • Reseda alba var. undata DC.
  • Reseda alba var. vulgaris Müll.Arg.
  • Reseda fruticulosa L.
  • Reseda hookeri Guss.

and 14 more.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.