Flora of New Zealand Series

garlic mustard

Biennial herb. Stem erect, sparsely hairy at base, becoming glabrous above, 40-70 cm tall. Lvs thin, glabrous above, with scattered hairs on veins beneath. Rosette and lower stem lvs reniform to ovate, cordate, obtuse to subacute, sinuate-dentate, (1.5)-3-8 × (2)-3.5-8 cm; petiole c. 2× length of lamina. Stem lvs similar, becoming triangular, truncate, coarsely dentate; petiole < lamina. Racemes 10-30 cm long at fruiting. Pedicels c. 5 mm long, slender at flowering, stout at fruiting. Sepals glabrous, ovate, 2-3 mm long. Petals white, 3-4.5 mm long. Siliques glabrous, spreading or slightly ascending, linear-cylindric, weakly torulose, (25)-35-50 × 1.5 mm; style 0.5 mm long. Seeds brown, finely longitudinally striate, 3-3.5 mm long.

S.: Canterbury, known from one site only, at Ashburton R., near Ashburton, where it persisted for at least 10 years

Temperate Eurasia, N. Africa 1893

Waste land under Salix and Populus trees

The sp. has also been recorded in N.Z. as A. officinalis. The lvs smell of garlic when crushed.