DIPLOTAXIS VIMINEA

Family and Genus:- See- CRUCIFERAE

Common Names:- Southern rocket

HomotypicSynonyms:- Brassica viminea, Eruca viminea, Sinapis viminea,

Sisymbrium pumilum, Sisymbrium vimineum.

Meaning:- Diplotaxis (Gr) Two-positions, (two-ranked seeds)

Viminea (L) With long, slender shoots.

General description:- Slender annual, glabrous or slightly hairy.

Stems:-

1) 5-30 cm, ascending,

Leaves:-

1) Mostly in a basal rosette, oblanceolate, sinuate-pinnatifid.

Flowers:-

1) Racemes, lax, much elongating in fruit.

2) Petals, 3-4.5 mm, clawed, scarcely exceeding sepals, pale yellow.

3) Lateral short stamens, sterile.

4) Fruiting pedicels, 6-20 mm, slender, erect to erecto-patent.

5) Sepals, erecto-patent.

6) Gynophore, usually short.

Fruit:-

1) Siliquae, 15-30 x 1-2 mm, linear, compressed, slightly tomlose, with a short

beak, valves 1-veined.

2) Seeds, numerous, in 2 rows in each loculus.

Key features:-

1) Petals 3-4 mm, yellow, sometimes violet-veined.

2) Outer stamens sterile.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Ruderal coastal habitats, fallow fields, olive groves, occasionally in stony

dry open shrubby vegetation. 0-400 m.

Distribution:- Fairly common in coastal areas of W mainland Greece and Ionian

Islands. - Mediterranean area, naturalised elsewhere. Rare on Crete known from

only a few scattered locations.

Flowering time:- Apr-June and also Oct-Nov.

Photos by:- Courtesy of Wiki-Commons