Raphanus
radish
erect, unbranched or branched.
basal and cauline;
petiolate or subsessile;
basal not rosulate, petiolate, blade margins lyrately lobed or pinnatifid to pinnatisect;
cauline shortly petiolate or subsessile, blade (base not auriculate), margins dentate or lobed, (smaller and fewer-lobed than basal).
(corymbose, several-flowered), usually greatly elongated in fruit.
sepals erect, narrowly oblong [linear], lateral pair slightly saccate basally;
petals white, creamy white, yellow, pink, or purple [lilac] (usually with darker veins), broadly obovate [suborbicular], claw differentiated from blade, (± longer than sepals, apex obtuse or emarginate [rounded]);
stamens strongly tetradynamous;
filaments not dilated basally;
anthers oblong or oblong-linear, (apex obtuse);
nectar glands (4), median pair present.
divaricate, ascending, or spreading [reflexed].
siliques or silicles, indehiscent, sessile, segments 2, (lomentaceous, often breaking into 1-seeded units), cylindrical, fusiform, lanceolate, or ovoid, [linear, oblong, ellipsoid], smooth or torulose to strongly moniliform, (constricted or not between seeds), terete or polygonal; (valvular segment seedless, rudimentary, or aborted, nearly as wide as pedicel; terminal segment several-seeded, corky);
valves glabrous, antrorsely scabrous, or hispid;
replum and septum not differentiated;
ovules 2–22 per ovary; (style slender);
stigma capitate, slightly 2-lobed.
uniseriate, plump, not winged, oblong, ovoid, or globose [subglobose];
seed coat (nearly smooth to reticulate), not mucilaginous when wetted;
cotyledons conduplicate.
= 9.
Raphanus
Species 3 (2 in the flora).
Natural hybridization between Raphanus raphanistrum and R. sativus has been known since 1788, and the hybrid has been named R. ×micranthus (Uechtritz) O. E. Schulz. The transfer of some of the weedy characters from R. raphanistrum to R. sativus through natural hybridization may have played a major role in converting the latter from a crop plant into a successful weed near the coastal areas of central California (C. A. Panetsos and H. G. Baker 1968). Raphanus confusus (Greuter & Burdet) Al-Shehbaz & Warwick is known from Asia (Israel, Lebanon).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
1. Petals pale or creamy white; fruits (2.5-)3-8(-11) mm wide, strongly constricted between seeds and usually breaking, strongly ribbed, beak narrowly conical. | R. raphanistrum |
1. Petals usually purple or pink, sometimes white; fruits (5-)7-13(-15) mm wide, rarely slightly constricted between seeds and usually not breaking, not ribbed, beak narrowly to broadly conical to linear. | R. sativus |
CA
OR
WA
Flora NW
PNW Herbaria
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
