Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

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Cakile edentula

Common name

American sea rocket

Family

Brassicaceae

Where found

Seashore, foredunes, and islands. Strictly coastal.

Notes

Introduced annual or rarely perennial herb to 0.8 m high, or sprawling. Stems hairless. Leaves alternating up the stems, dark green, fleshy, usually 4–7 cm long, variously lobed but not deeply dissected, margins smooth. Flowers with 4 petals each 4–8 mm long, white, pink, or mauve. Flowers in clusters. Seed cases spreading, 12–24 mm long, 4–8 mm wide, breaking between the upper and lower segments. Lower segment of the seed cases much narrower than the upper segment, without lateral projections at the top. Flowers spring–autumn.

Hybridises with Cakile maritima subsp. maritima. Intermediates between the two species are common or dominant in some areas.

PlantNET description:  http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Cakile~edentula  (accessed 6 January, 2021)