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arugula, garden-rocket, rocket, rocket-salad

Habit Annuals, biennials, or perennials [shrubs]; eglandular.
Cauline leaves

petiolate or sessile;

blade base auriculate or not, margins entire, dentate, serrate, or pinnately lobed.

Racemes

usually ebracteate, often elongated in fruit.

Flowers

actinomorphic;

sepals erect, ascending, or spreading, lateral pair saccate or not basally;

petals white, cream, yellow, pink, lilac, lavender, or purple, claw present, often distinct;

filaments unappendaged, not winged;

pollen 3-colpate.

Fruits

silicles or siliques, dehiscent or indehiscent, usually segmented, usually latiseptate or terete (subterete or 4-angled in Erucastrum) [angustiseptate];

ovules (1–)2–276[–numerous] per ovary;

style usually distinct (absent in Cakile, obscure in Carrichtera, obsolete in Eruca);

stigma entire or strongly 2-lobed (sometimes slightly 2-lobed in Cakile).

Seeds

biseriate, uniseriate, or aseriate;

cotyledons usually conduplicate, rarely accumbent or incumbent (in Cakile).

Trichomes

absent or simple.

Eruca vesicaria

Brassicaceae tribe Brassiceae

Distribution
from FNA
AZ; CA; CO; CT; IA; IL; KS; MD; MI; MO; MT; ND; NE; NJ; NM; NV; NY; OR; PA; SD; TX; UT; VT; WA; WV; AB; BC; MB; ON; QC; SK; Europe (Spain); Asia; nw Africa [Introduced also in South America, Australia]
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
North America; Eurasia; n Africa [Introduced widely]
Discussion

Subspecies 2 (1 in the flora).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Genera 46, species ca. 245 (13 genera, 28 species in the flora).

The generic boundaries in Brassiceae are largely artificial, and the number of genera may be substantially reduced.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Source FNA vol. 7, p. 434. FNA vol. 7, p. 419.
Parent taxa Brassicaceae > tribe Brassiceae > Eruca Brassicaceae
Subordinate taxa
E. vesicaria subsp. sativa
Synonyms Brassica vesicaria
Name authority (Linnaeus) Cavanilles: Descr. Pl., 426. (1802) de Candolle: Mém. Mus. Hist. Nat. 7: 242. (1821)
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