Alliaria petiolata |
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garlic mustard |
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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 |
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Distribution | |
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 |
Web links |
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