Family: Brassicaceae,
Mustard
Genus: Cardaria
Description
General: short-hairy to hoary-short-hairy, strongly
rhizomatous perennial, often growing in colonies. Stems
erect to creeping, 20-50 cm tall.
 Leaves: several alternate on stem, ovate-oblong to
oblong-oblanceolate, small-toothed, 4-10 cm long, the
lower ones stalked, the upper ones stalkless and clasping,
arrowlike, with backward-pointed lobes at base.
 Flowers: numerous in dense top clusters, together
forming a large, flat-topped cluster, without bracts at bases.
Flower stalks slender, about 1 cm long. The 4 sepals about
2 mm long, elliptic, white-edged, blunt-tipped, falling off
early. The 4 petals white, almost round, 3-4 mm long.
Flowering time: April-August.
 Fruits: pods, almost round in outline, not notched at
base, not indented along the seam, inflated, 3-5 mm long,
4-6 mm broad, hairless. Style about 1 mm long. Seeds 1,
rarely 2 per cell, about 2 mm long, not wing-margined,
slimy on the surface when wet.
Distribution
Widely distributed in old fields, along roadsides, etc, in w.,
s.c. and n.e. parts of MT. Also throughout much of the
lowland of w. U.S., often becoming a noxious weed.
Introduced from Europe. |
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