Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

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Brassica rapa

Common name

Field Mustard, Turnip

Family

Brassicaceae

Where found

Widely cultivated and established as a weed. Roadsides, waste places and other disturbed sites, and occasionally on coastal headlands. Coast and ranges north from Port Kembla. Doubtfully naturalised in the ACT. Occasionally elsewhere.

Notes

Introduced annual or biennial herb to 1 m high, branched, with a stout taproot. Stems often bristly. Basal leaves 15–40 cm long, deeply lobed, the terminal lobe larger than the lateral lobes, surfaces bristly; upper leaves more or less entire and becoming bract-like. Flowers with 4 bright yellow petals each 6–11 mm long. Flowers in clusters. Flowers mainly spring and autumn. Seed cases obliquely erect, 4–7 cm long (including the beak), about 3 mm wide, somewhat constricted between the seeds; midrib prominent. Beak 5–22 mm long, seedless or rarely with 1 seed. Stalk 5–30 mm long. Seeds red to black-brown.

PlantNET description:  http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Brassica~rapa   (accessed 18 April 2021)