Family |
Brassicaceae
Diplotaxis erucoides
(L.) DC.
Diplotaxis erucoides (L.) DC.
(First published in Syst. Nat. 2: 631 (1821); Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 2, Pl. XLIV nº 4; 1969)
• Life-form & habit : Annual or sometimes biennial therophyte, green, uni- to pluricaule, more or less hispid; root slender; stems erect to ascending, 30–60 cm tall, simple or branched, angular, hispid with simple hairs.
• Leaves : Lower leaves oblong to obovate-oblong in outline, attenuate into a petiole, pinnatipartite, with 4–6 pairs of lateral segments.
• Inflorescence & flowers : Racemes 20–40-flowered, naked or with a few leafy bracts at the base; pedicels 5–8 mm, not or only slightly thickened after anthesis, with spreading hairs; sepals erect-spreading, oblong, obtuse; petals white, later more or less tinged violet, with a densely veined blade.
• Fruit : Siliques glabrous to hispid, spreading or erect-spreading, 2–4 cm × 2–3 mm, compressed, torulose, with a gynophore 0.5–1 mm long; seeds smooth, reddish-brown.
• Phenology : Flowers from December to July.
• Habitat & elevation : Cultivated ground and areas around inhabited places; common.
• Lebanese distribution : Recorded from Saïda, Beirut and surroundings, Zahlé, Rayak and Baalbeck.
• Native range : Algeria, Baleares, Corse, Egypt, Ethiopia, France, Greece, Iran, Iraq, Italy, Lebanon-Syria, Morocco, Palestine, Portugal, Sardegna, Saudi Arabia, Sicilia, Sinai, Spain, Sudan-South Sudan, Tunisia, Türkiye, Yemen.
• Diagnostic remarks : Easily distinguished within Lebanese Diplotaxis by its white to pale violet-tinged flowers and annual to biennial habit; separated from the yellow-flowered species of the genus, especially D. viminea, D. tenuifolia and D. harra.