HIRSCHFELDIA INCANA

Formally incorrectly listed as Brassica geniculata

Family and Genus:- See- CRUCIFERAE

Common Name:- Hoary mustard

Homotypic Synonyms:- For a full list of Homotypic Synonyms click here.

Meaning:- Hirschfeldia (L)

Incana (L)

General description:- Annual to biennial, leafy, densely white-hairy to somewhat

glabrous below.

Stems:-

1) up to 1·5 m, usually much-branched.

Leaves:-

1) Lower, runcinate-pinnatifid, with an ovate, obtuse, shallowly dentate terminal

lobe.

2) Upper, simple, more or less sessile.

Flowers:-

1) Inflorescence, with several long branches. racemes much enlongating in fruit.

2) Petals, 5-10 mm, pale yellow, often with dark veins.

3) Pedicels, 2-4 mm, clavate and erect in fruit.

Fruit:-

1) Siliquae, erect and appressed to axis, 7-17 mm, 2-6-seeded; beak 3-4 mm.

2) Seeds, 0.9-1.2 mm, subglobose.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Roadsides, field margins, orchards and other anthropogenic habitats,

occasionally in open dry shrubby vegetation. 0-500(-1100) m.

Distribution:- A common weed throughout the lowlands, including most of the

islands. Europe except the northern parts, the Mediterranean area, SW Asia,

Widespread and common on Crete.

Flowering time:- April to early June, occasionally later.

Photos by:- Fotis Samaritakis