Flora of New Zealand Series

flixweed

Annual herb. Rosette short-lived or 0. Stem sometimes purplish, erect, stellate-hairy, to 1 m tall. All lvs ± densely stellate-hairy, 2-3-pinnatisect, glaucous, 2-7 × 1-3 cm; lobes linear or narrowly oblong. Racemes erect or suberect, sparsely hairy or glabrous, 10-30-(40) cm tall. Pedicels slender, c. 5 mm long at flowering, lengthening to 1-(2) cm and spreading at fruiting. Sepals c. 2 mm long, clothed in stellate hairs. Petals pale yellow, 1-1.5 mm long. Anthers 0.2-0.3 mm long; filaments slightly > sepals. Silique ± erect, glabrous, often curved upwards making an angle with the pedicel, (10)-15-20 × c. 1 mm, slightly torulose; median vein distinct. Seeds oblong, brown, c. 1 mm long, in 1 row per locule.

S.: Canterbury (Kaiapoi), C. Otago.

Eurasia, N. Africa 1899

Waste places, stock yards, railway yards.

Flixweed is sometimes confused with Sisymbrium altissimum but is readily distinguished by its more finely dissected lvs with stellate hairs, shorter petals and anthers, slender pedicels and shorter, more delicate siliques. The sp. has also been referred to in N.Z. as Sisymbrium sophia.