Annual Bastard Cabbage

The above stray records from our area are either of cultivated plants or casuals introduced from outside. They have smaller, almost glabrous fruits (not fully mature). It is a very variable species specially with regard to fruit, and several infraspecific taxa have been recognized under it, but their taxonomic status is very doubtful due to overlapping of characters.

nnual, erect, branched, 15-60 (-90) cm tall, ± hispid below and glaucous above. Lower leaves pinnately lobed, 3-jugate, stalked, irregularly and coarsely toothed, terminal lobe large; upper leaves smaller, lobed or simply toothed to subentire, narrowed into a stalk-like base. Racemes branched, much increasing in length in fruit. Sepals 3-4 (-4.5) mm long, 1.2 mm broad, subequal. Petals about twice as long as the sepals, light yellow with darker veins, shortly clawed. Stamens c. 4:5 mm long; pedicel short, 2-3 (-5) mm long in fruit, somewhat thickened and erect-appressed to stem; Siliculae 6-10 mm long, including ± equal upper and lower parts, hispid to glabrous; upper part globular or spherical, 1-seeded, about 3 mm. in diam. with 1-4 mm long beak or style; lower part 2-3 (-3.5) mm long, 1.5 mm broad, usually 1-3 seeded.

Distribution: Europe, N. Africa, S. Russia, Trans-Caspian region, Iraq, Iran and W. Pakistan.

Fl.Per.: April June.

Rapistrum rugosum is a species of flowering plant in the mustard family known by the common names annual bastardcabbage, common giant mustard or turnipweed. It is native to Eurasia and parts of Africa, and it is present throughout the world as an introduced species and a common weed. It is an invasive species in many areas. It is an annual herb producing an erect stem reaching up to about a meter tall. The leaves are variable in shape and size and the proximal blades are generally cut into lobes or divided into leaflets. The herbage is coated in rough hairs. The inflorescence is a raceme of flowers with dark-veined yellow petals that are each under a centimeter long. The fruit is a knoblike spherical ribbed silique borne on a long pedicel with a widened area where it joins the fruit.