Flora of North America species comparison

The green links below add additional plants to the comparison table. Blue links lead to other Web sites.
enable glossary links

Rapistrum

bastardcabbage, turnip, turnipweed, wild-turnip
Habit Annuals [perennials]; not scapose; glabrous or pubescent.
Stems

erect, unbranched or branched basally.
Leaves

basal and cauline;

petiolate or subsessile;

basal not rosulate, petiolate, blade margins usually pinnate to lyrately pinnatifid, rarely undivided, dentate;

cauline subsessile or shortly petiolate, blade (base not auriculate), margins lobed, subentire, or dentate.
Racemes

(corymbose, several-flowered), greatly elongated in fruit.
Flowers

sepals ascending, oblong, lateral pair not saccate basally, (hispid [glabrous or with subapical tuft of hairs]);

petals yellow, obovate, claw differentiated from blade, (apex ± truncate);

stamens tetradynamous;

filaments not dilated basally;

anthers ovate to suboblong, (apex obtuse);

nectar glands confluent, median glands present.
Fruiting pedicels

erect [ascending], (usually appressed to rachis), slender to stout.
Fruits

silicles, indehiscent, sessile, segments 2, elliptic to oblong, torulose, (slightly to strongly constricted at transverse joint), terete or angular; (valvular segment persistent, dehiscent [indehiscent], 1(–3)-seeded, longitudinally striate or smooth, occasionally seedless and nearly as wide as pedicel;

terminal segment indehiscent, caducous at maturity, usually 1-seeded, rarely seedless);

valves glabrous or pubescent;

septum complete;

ovules 2–4; (style persistent, filiform);

stigma capitate, (flattened), 2-lobed.
Seeds

uniseriate, slightly compressed, not winged, ovoid [oblong];

seed coat (smooth), not mucilaginous when wetted;

cotyledons conduplicate.
x

= 8.

Rapistrum
Distribution
from USDA
s Europe (Mediterranean region) [Introduced in North America; introduced also nearly worldwide]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Species 2 (1 in the flora).

Both species of Rapistrum have been introduced into North America; only R. rugosum has persisted with naturalized populations. Rapistrum perenne (Linnaeus) Allioni was first collected in 1922 from southeastern Saskatchewan but has not been seen or collected from there since 1932. It can be distinguished by being a perennial with a conical style shorter than the strongly 8-ribbed terminal segment, whereas R. rugosum is an annual with a slender, filiform style longer than the slightly ribbed terminal segment.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 7, p. 440. Author: Suzanne I. Warwick.
Parent taxa Brassicaceae > tribe Brassiceae
Subordinate taxa
R. rugosum
Name authority Crantz: Cl. Crucif. Emend., 105. (1769)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



Type/paste one or more Latin names into the boxes above; matching taxa will show up below the box as you type. You can use the up/down arrow keys to move through the list.

(If the plant you're looking for doesn't show up in the auto-complete list, that means it either isn't described in Flora of North America yet, or it's listed under a synonym. And please note that Flora of North America is still missing several plant families, including Apiaceae, Boraginaceae, and Polemoniaceae.)

Choose a data source: Flora of North America, OregonFlora

The species comparison tool is brought to you by:
Northwest Wildflowers