Brassica rapa L.
wild turnip
Annual with lax rosette. Stems erect or ascending, glabrous, to 1.5 m tall, sometimes becoming subwoody below. Lower lvs petiolate, lyrate-pinnatifid with large terminal and 1-3 pairs of lateral lobes, bright green, bristly, 15-25-(30) × 5-10 cm; margins sinuate, toothed. Upper lvs becoming amplexicaul, glaucous, not lobed, sessile, glabrous, narrowly triangular, entire, 2-10 × 1-2 cm. Racemes to 40 cm long; open fls overtopping buds. Sepals narrow-oblong, (4)-5-7 × 1-1.5 mm. Petals bright yellow, 6-10 × 3-4 mm. Lateral stamens spreading. Silique terete, glabrous, linear-lanceolate, slightly constricted between seeds, (30)-40-60 × 2-5 mm; gynophore 0; valves with prominent median and weaker lateral veins; beak tapering, seedless, 6-10 mm long. Seeds reddish brown, 1-1.5 mm diam.
N.; S.; St.: throughout.
Europe 1864
Common and persistent weed of pastures, roadsides, waste places and gardens.
Poisonous (Connor 1977).
N.Z. wild specimens belong to subsp. sylvestris (L.) Janchen. The cultivated turnip is subsp. rapa. B. rapa subsp. sylvestris has also been referred to in N.Z. as B. campestris and as B. rapa var. campestris.
