Yellow Crucifers

Mustard Family - Brassicaceae

Southern Warty Cabbage Bunias erucago

Native to southern and South-central Europe and scattered in ajoining parts of the Mediterranean Region. A small plant growing to 30-60cm in height. Best identified by its very distinctive seed capsules, which have sharply toothed wings on them. Stems studded with reddish, glandular bumps.


Flower	Basal leaf	Stem	Seed capsule

Common Disc Cress Clypeola jonthlaspi

Native to South-Central Europe and the Mediterranean Region, eastwards to the Arabian Peninsula and Central Asia. Plant 5-20cm tall, petals 1-1.5mm long.


Habit	Habit	Flowers	Flower

Leaf	Seed capsules

Lesvos Alison Odontarrhena lesbiaca

Endemic to Lesvos. A woody-based perennial, found on stony slopes.


Habit	Flowers	Flowers	Flowers

Flower	Leaf	Stem	Seed capsule

Tiny Alison Alyssum minutum

Patchily distributed through southern and eastern Europe eastwards to the Middle East. A tiny plant of stony places. Fruits hairless.


Flowers	Leaves	Seed capsules

Strigose Alyssum Alyssum strigosum

Native southern Europe, from Italy eastwards to the Middle East. A tiny plant of stony places. Fruits hairy with simple and stellate hairs.


Habit	Habit	Flowers	Flowers

Leaves	Seed capsules	Seed capsules

Golden Alison Aurinia saxatilis

Native to Central Europe and the Balkan Peninsula but also widely grown elsewhere as a garden ornamental.


Habit	Flowers	Flowers	Leaves

Common Buckler-mustard Biscutella didyma

Native to the central and eastern Mediterranean Region. Frequent on dry, stony slopes and roadsides.


Flowers	Basal leaves	Basal leaf	Stem leaf

Seed capsules	Seed capsules

Tall Treacle-mustard Erysimum horizontale

Native to a small area of North-west Turkey, Lesvos and Karpathos. Relatively tall for a treacle-mustard (to around 80cm in height). Leaves often with two-pointed teeth, with a dense covering of mostly 4-rayed hairs and a scattering of 2- to 5-rayed hairs. Ripe seed capsules are held at an angle of 70-90 degrees with the main stem.


Habit	Flowers	Flower	Sepals

Leaves	Leaf	Seed capsules	Seed capsule detail

Pale Rocket Sisymbrium irio

Native throughout southern Europe, northern Africa and eastwards to Central Asia and the Himalayan Region. Rather similar to Eastern Rocket, but typically smaller, with stalkless upper leaves, base of seed capsules thicker than their stalk and pale flowers.

Habit

Eastern Rocket Sisymbrium orientale

Native to the Mediterranean region and eastwards to Inda. Usually found as an urban weed or on rough, disturbed ground.


Habit	Flowers	Flowers	Flowers

Basal leaves	Stem leaf	Seed capsules

Hedge Mustard Sisymbrium officinale

Native throughout Europe and the Mediterranean Region, eastwards to western Asia. A weedy plant of disturbed ground. Flowers tiny, deep yellow. Seed capsules carried close to the stem.


Habit - young plant	Habit - older plant	Flowers	Basal leaf

Annual Wall-rocket Diplotaxis muralis

Native from Macaronesia eastwards through the Mediterranean Basin to the Caucasus. Leaves shallowly lobed, plants short (less than 50cm) and stalks of the ripe seed capsules short.


Habit	Flowers	Leaf	Seed capsules

White Mustard Sinapis alba

Native throughout almost all of Eurasia and Mediterranean North Africa. Seed capsule bristly with a long, flat, sabre-like beak.


Flowers	Lower leaf	Seed capsules	Seed capsule

Black Mustard Mutarda nigra

(Brassica nigra ) Native throughout Europe and the Mediterranean Basin, eastwards to southern China and India. A tall, robust, often much-branched plant which may reach 2-3m in height. Green, becoming slightly glaucous above, with coarsely bristly stems and leaves; flowers yellow and smaller than those of cultivated species. Lower leaves coarsely and irregularly lobed, upper leaves variably toothed or entire, but not clasping stem at base. Seed pods are shorter than most of the other Brassica group species, somewhat 'knobbly' and held stiffly upright, close to the main stem.


Flowers	Leaf	Leaf detail	Seed capsules

Charlock Rhamphospermum arvensis

(Sinapis arvensis) Native throughout almost all of Eurasia and Mediterranean North Africa.


Flowers	Lower leaf	Upper leaf	Seed capsule

Common Rocket Eruca vesicaria

Native to the Mediterranean Region and eastwards to China.


Habit	Flowers	Flower	Flower

Leaf	Seed capsules	Seed capsule

Wild Radish Raphanus raphanistrum subsp. raphanistrum

Native throughout Europe and the Mediterranean Basin to western Asia. Once known, this is an easy plant to recognise, with its coarse, bristly leaves and stems and its seed pods that have faint ribbing between the developing seeds. Flowers usually have dark veins and populations usually have a mix of both white and pale yellow flowered plants among them. The petals have long bases to them, forming a distinct cross shape.


Flower	Flower	Basal leaves	Seed capsule

Hoary Mustard Hirschfeldia incana

Native to the Mediterranean Region and eastwards to the Arabian Peninsula. Often abundant along roadsides and on disturbed ground, forming large colonies of plants.