SINAPIS ALBA subsp. ALBA

Family and Genus:- See- CRUCIFERAE

Common Names:- White mustard

Homotypic Synonyms:- None

Meaning:- Sinapis (Gr) A name used by the Greek philosopher Theophrastus for

mustard.

Alba (L) Bright, white.

General description:- Herbaceous annual.

Stems:-

1) Up to 80 cm, erect, branched, usually with stiff, deflexed hairs (rarely glabrous).

Leaves:-

1) Alternate, lyrate-pinnatifid or pinnate.

Flowers:-

1) Yellow, from 10-20 mm diam., joined together in racemes from 5-20 cm long.

2) Corolla, with 4 free petals, with a long claw.

3) Calyx with 4 free, spread out, yellow green sepals.

Fruit:-

1) Siliqua, 20-40 x 3-4 mm; valves usually hispid; beak 10-30 mm.

Key features:-

1) Siliqua, with 4-8 seeds. Beak, strongly compressed, usually longer than the

valvar portion of the siliqua.

3) Sepals, more than 4·5 mm.

4) Leaves, variably covered with short, stiff hairs, but scarcely scabrid.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Weed of cultivated fields, olive groves, roadsides and waste-ground, often

gregarious. 0-800 m.

Distribution:- Throughout Greece, but rare in the interior north. - Widespread and

probably native to the Mediterranean area and SW Asia. Widespread and common

on Crete.

Flowering time:- Mid-Mar to late May, occasionally later.

Photos by:- Steve Lenton