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Western Tansymustard
Descurainia pinnata (Walt.) Britt.
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Family: Brassicaceae,
Mustard
Genus: Descurainia
Description
General: greenish to short-grey-hairy annual, with fine,
star-shaped hairs and sometimes glandular above, 10-70
cm tall, from simple to usually freely branched.
 Leaves: alternate, broadly lanceolate to oblanceolate,
the lower ones stalked, 3-10 cm long, from bipinnate-
pinnatifid to commonly pinnate-pinnatifid and somewhat
toothed, the segments linear or broader. Upper leaves
reduced, usually pinnatifid into linear segments.
 Flowers: numerous in clusters, later greatly elongated.
Flower stalks slender, 3-18 mm long, spreading and often
somewhat S-shaped to ascending. The 4 sepals 1-2 mm
long. The 4 petals pale to bright yellow, 1.5-3.5 mm long,
oblanceolate, spreading, longer than the sepals.
Flowering time: April-July.
 Fruits: pods, 4-20 mm. long, about 1.5 mm broad,
mostly with seeds in 2 rows at least near midlength and
thus usually somewhat club-shaped or elliptic in outline,
only inconspicuously, if at all consticted between seeds,
narrowed and rounded abruptly to the barely perceptible
style. Seeds 1-20 per cell, about 0.8 mm long.
Distribution
Plains, hills and disturbed areas, in most parts of MT. A
very widespread, extremely variable, often weedy plant in
most of the U.S. and s. Canada, except the far east.
 Edible and Medicinal plant: see below. |
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(click on image for full size)
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(click on images for full size)
Edible Uses:
The young leaves of western tansymustard are edible cooked. However, they have a bitter flavor. If eaten as greens in the spring, they are said to have a salty flavor. The seedpods make an interesting mustard-flavored nibble. The seeds are edible raw or cooked. They have been used as a piñole. The seed has a mustard flavor and can be used to flavor soups or as a condiment with corn. The seed can also ground into a powder, mixed with cornmeal and used to make bread, or as a thickening for soups etc. In Mexico the seeds are made into a refreshing drink with lime juice, claret and syrup.
Medicinal Uses:
The Navajo and Cahuilla Indians used this plant for medicinal purposes. The ground up seeds was used in the treatment of stomach complaints. A poultice of the plant has been used to ease the pain of toothache. An infusion of the leaves has been used as a wash on sores.
Varieties:
1 Plants glandular, especially among the flowers, often grayish-short-hairy. Pods 2-10 (12) mm long
2 Pods more nearly oblong or club-shaped, 5-10 (12) mm long. Seeds often imperfectly in 2 rows. Petals from nearly white to dark yellow, often more than 1.5 (up to 3) mm long
3 Plant greenish. Petals yellow, 2-3 mm long. On the e. base of the Rockies from Canada to TX, e. to N. England and Quebec.
ssp. brachycarpa (Richards.) Detling
1 Plants non-glandular, or occasionally glandular above in var. filipes
4 Pods 4-12 mm long, usually subequal to or longer than the stalks
5 Petals about 1.5 mm long. Flower stalks mostly 4-6 mm long. From e. WA to NV, e. to MT and CO.
ssp. nelsonii (Rydb.) Detling
5 Petals 2-3 mm long. Flower stalks mostly 6-12 mm long. Rocky Mts. from e. B.C. to CO, grading into var. filipes.
ssp. intermedia (Rydb.) Detling
4 Pods 10-21 mm long, usually shorter than the stalks. From B.C. through e. WA to e. CA and NV, e. to MT and CO.
ssp. filipes (Gray) Detling
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