Flora-Fauna

Eruca vesicaria (L.) Cav.

(Descr. Pl.: 426, 1802; Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 1, p. 400; 1966)

• Life-form & habit: Annual, erect to ascending, 30–80 cm tall, branched above, glabrous or sparsely pubescent.
• Leaves: Lower leaves lyrate-pinnatifid with a large terminal lobe and smaller lateral lobes; upper leaves oblong-lanceolate, entire or dentate, sessile, clasping the stem.
• Inflorescence & flowers: Racemes elongated in fruit. Sepals erect, green, often tinged violet. Petals pale yellow with darker veins, obovate, 10–16 mm, narrowed into a short claw. Stamens 6, tetradynamous.
• Fruit: Silique elongated, terete, 2–4 cm, inflated, with a distinct beak up to 1 cm. Seeds globose, brown, mucilaginous when wet.
• Phenology: Flowers March–June.
• Habitat & elevation: Fields, waste ground, roadsides, often as a weed of cultivation, from sea level to c. 1,200 m.
• Lebanese distribution: Coastal plains (Beirut, Saida, Tripoli), Beqaa (Zahlé, Baalbeck), and foothills of Mount Lebanon.
• Syrian distribution: Damascus plain, Aleppo, Palmyra, Latakia, Homs; widespread in cultivated and ruderal habitats.
• Native range (Euro+Med & POWO): Widespread in the Mediterranean region and adjoining areas — Algeria, Baleares, Cyprus, East Aegean Islands, Egypt, France, Greece, Iran, Iraq, Italy, Kriti, Lebanon–Syria, Libya, Morocco, Palestine, Sardegna, Sicilia, Spain, Transcaucasus, Tunisia, Turkey. Doubtfully native in parts of the Balkans (Euro+Med).
• Introduced into: Central and northern Europe (Germany, Poland, Scandinavia, Great Britain), often as a casual or archaeophyte weed (Euro+Med).