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garlic mustard

Habit Herbs annual or biennial, with garlicky smell when crushed, glabrous or pilose.
Stems

erect; (1.5)3–9(13) dm; simple or branched above.

Basal leaves

reniform or cordate; (0.6)1.5–8(11) cm wide, bases cordate;

margins crenate, dentate, or sinuate.

Cauline leaves

cordate or deltoid; to 15 × 15 cm, bases cordate or truncate, not auriculate;

margins dentate;

petioles 3–16(22) cm.

Inflorescences

bracts 0 or only lowermost few flowers with bracts, fruiting pedicels divaricate or ascending; (2)3–10(15) mm, nearly as thick as fruit.

Flowers

sepals erect, caducous, oblong; (2)2.5–3.5(4.5) mm, glabrous, bases of lateral pair not saccate;

petals oblanceolate; (2.5)4–8(9) × (1.5)2–3(3.5) mm; > sepals, white;

claws obscurely differentiated from blades, nectar glands confluent, subtending bases of all stamens;

stamens 6, slightly tetradynamous;

filaments free;

anthers tips obtuse;

ovules 14–22 per ovary;

septa complete;

styles obsolete or (0.2)1–2(3) mm;

stigmas capitate; entire.

Fruits

dehiscent siliques, divaricate-ascending, linear, 4-angled or subterete; (2)3–7(8) cm × 1.2–2.5 mm, unsegmented;

valves with prominent midveins, glabrous, subtorulose; replums rounded, sessile.

Seeds

narrowly oblong, 2–4.5 × 0.7–2 mm, dark brown or black, concentrically striate, not mucilaginous when wetted; wingless;

cotyledons incumbent.

Trichomes

absent or simple.

2n

=42.

Alliaria petiolata

Distribution
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Roadsides, trails, railroad tracks, waste places, fields, river­banks, woodlands, bluffs, thickets, disturbed areas, floodplains. Flowering Apr–May. 0–800 m. Casc, Col, CR, WV. ID, WA; north to AK, northeast to Quebec, southeast to GA; Africa, Asia, Europe. Exotic.

This species is listed as a noxious weed in 46 states.

Source Flora of Oregon, volume 2, page 438
Ihsan Al-Shehbaz
Synonyms Alliaria officinalis
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