Brassica L.
Annual to perennial taprooted herbs, rarely shrubs. Hairs simple, usually bristly, sometimes 0. Stems erect or ascending, usually leafy. Lvs lyrate-pinnate, pinnate, lyrate-pinnatifid, pinnatifid, or not lobed; margin crenate or serrate. Racemes usually ebracteate. Sepals erect to patent; inner pair ± saccate at base. Petals yellow or white. Stamens 6, without appendages. Lateral nectaries 2, behind bases of lateral stamens; median nectaries 2, in front of paired stamens. Style short; stigma capitate or slightly 2-lobed. Silique linear to narrow-oblong, dehiscent; valves with strong median and weaker lateral veins; beak tapering or elongated, 0-3-seeded. Seeds almost spherical, not winged, finely reticulate, in 1 row per locule.
Key
c. 40 spp., mostly Europe, especially Mediterranean, Asia. Naturalised spp. 8.
