Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

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Sisymbrium officinale

Common name

Hedge mustard

Family

Brassicaceae

Where found

Weed of pastures, crops, roadsides, and disturbed sites. Widespread.

Notes

Introduced annual or biennial herb to 0.9 m high, rough with coarse hairs. Basal leaves in a rosette, to 25 cm long but often much shorter, deeply dissected, margins toothed. Stem leaves alternating up the stems, becoming smaller up the stems. Flowers with 4 yellow petals 2–4 mm long. Flowers in branched clusters. Flowers mostly spring. 'Pods' narrow conical, 0.8–2 cm long, 2 mm wide at the base, straight; stalks 1–3 mm long, thick, pointing up or closely appressed to the stem.

No other Brassicaceae in Australia have narrow-conical 'pods' appressed to the stems.

PlantNET description:  http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Sisymbrium~officinale (accessed 7 February, 2021)