Burke: Brassica rapa vs. Brassica napus

	Brassica rapa	Brassica napus
	common mustard, field mustard, wild turnip	rape, winter rape, rapeseed
Habit	Annual or biennial herb, glabrous or sparsely hairy with fleshy or slender roots.
Flowers	Flowers in small racemes terminally from leaf axils, with fruiting pedicels ascending to spreading, 10-25 mm. Sepals 4, green to yellow; petals 4, pale to deep yellow, 1 cm long; 6 stamens, 2 shorter than the others; superior ovary with one 2-carpellate pistil.
Fruits	Siliques up to 7cm long with s slender beaked tip.
Seeds	Black, brown or reddish in color, 1-2 mm in diameter. Seed coat is very finely reticulate to lightly alveolate.

	Brassica rapa	Brassica napus
Flowering time	April-Septemeber	April-June
Habitat	Roadsides, fields, ditches, wastelots and other disturbed open areas.	Disturbed areas including fields, roadsides, and wastelots, where often escaped from cultivation.
Distribution	Occurring chiefly west of the Cascades crest in Washington; Alaska to California, east to the Atlantic Coast. [WildflowerSearch map] [BONAP county map]	Occurring on both sides of the Cascades crest in Washington; widely distributed throughout much of North America. [WildflowerSearch map] [BONAP county map]
Origin	Introduced from Europe	Introduced from Eurasia
Conservation status	Not of concern	Not of concern
Sibling taxa	B. juncea, B. napus, B. nigra, B. oleracea	B. juncea, B. nigra, B. oleracea, B. rapa
Web links	Local floras: BC, CA, OR, WA Local Web sites: CalFlora, CalPhotos, Flora NW, PNW Herbaria, Turner Photog. WildflowerSearch iNaturalist (observations) USDA Plants Database LBJ Wildflower Center SEINet Plants of the World Online Encyclopedia of Life Wikipedia Google Image Search	Local floras: BC, CA, OR, WA Local Web sites: CalFlora, CalPhotos, Flora NW, PNW Herbaria WildflowerSearch iNaturalist (observations) USDA Plants Database LBJ Wildflower Center SEINet Plants of the World Online Encyclopedia of Life Wikipedia Google Image Search