Flora of New Zealand Series

turnip weed

Annual herb. Stems weakly ribbed, bearing slightly deflexed short tapered hairs, but ± glabrous above, and below with age, (10)-20-60- (80) cm tall. Lvs serrate to dentate, petiolate, hairy with short tapered hairs. Lower lvs pinnate to pinnatifid or rarely not lobed, (2)-8-20 × (1)-2-7 cm, with a large ovate-oblong terminal lobe and (0)-1-4 pairs of oblong lateral lobes. Upper lvs ovate to linear, 2-5 × 0.5-1.5 cm. Racemes glabrous or hairy, 10-30-(40) cm long. Pedicels erect, 2-4 mm long. Sepals narrow-lanceolate. Petals pale yellow with darker veins, 6-10 mm long; limb elliptic. Silicle erect, hairy or glabrous, weakly to strongly ribbed and rugose; lower segment cylindric or barrel-shaped, 2-3-(5) mm long; upper segment ovoid to turbinate, 2-4 × 2-4-(5) mm, tapering ± abruptly above; style 2-3 mm long. Upper seed c. 2 mm long, lower c. 1 mm long.

N.; S.; K.

W., C., and S. Europe, N. Africa, S.W. Asia 1883

Coastal, waste land, railway ballast, gardens.

Poisonous (Connor 1977).

Some forms of this variable sp. approach subsp. linnaeanum Rouy et Fouc., but the distinction between that and other subspp. seems unclear in N.Z. and elsewhere.