Garlic Mustard

Annual or biennial herb, 20-30(-40) cm tall, erect, sparsely branched or simple, glabrous above and sparsely hairy below. Basal leaves loosely rosulate, cordate to reniform, long-petioled, dentate; lamina usually 10-15 cm long, 2-6 cm broad; cauline leaves often ovate-triangular, dentate, shortly stalked; all leaves thin or submembranous, pale greem. Racemes 15-30-flowered, up to 30 cm long in fruit, lax. Flowers c. 5 mm across, white; pedicels 5-8 mm long in fruit, strong and thickened, spreading. Sepals c. 2.5 mm long. Petals (5-)6-8 mm long, c. 2 mm broad. Stamens c. 2.5: 3.5 mm long; anthers c. 1 mm long. Siliquae (30-) 45-60(-70) mm long, c. 2 (-2.5) mm broad, linear-terete, often straight, suberect or erect; style 1-3 mm long with a depressed stigma; seeds many, c. 3 mm long, 1 mm broad, oblong, dark-brown to almost black, longitudinally striated.

Herbs biennial, with garlicy smell when crushed. Stems erect, (15-)30-90(-130) cm tall, simple or branched above, glabrous or pilose basally with trichomes to 1.5 mm. Basal leaves rosulate, withered by fruiting; petiole 3-10(-16) cm; leaf blade reniform or cordate, (0.6-)1.5-5(-7) cm wide, shorter in length, base cordate, margin crenate or dentate, glabrous or pilose. Cauline leaves with much shorter petioles, ovate, cordate, or deltoid, to 15 × 15 cm, base cordate or truncate, margin acutely to obtusely toothed, apex acute. Racemes ebracteate or rarely lowermost flowers bracteate. Fruiting pedicels divaricate or ascending, (2-)3-10(-15) mm, nearly as thick as fruit. Sepals oblong, (2-)2.5-3.5(-4.5) × 0.7-1.5 mm. Petals white, oblanceolate, (2.5-)4-8(-9) × (1.5-)2-3(-3.5) mm, attenuate to clawlike base. Filaments 2-3.5(-4.5) mm; anthers oblong, 0.7-1 mm. Fruit linear, (2-)3-7(-8) cm × 1.2-2.5 mm, subtorulose, quadrangular or subterete, divaricate-ascending; valves glabrous; style (0.2-)1-2(-3) mm. Seeds brown or black, narrowly oblong, 2-4.5 × 0.7-2 mm, longitudinally striate. Fl. Apr-Jun, fr. May-Jul. 2n = 36, 42.

Europe, N. Africa, W. & C. Asia, Himalaya (Kashmir to Nepal).

Distribution: Europe, most of Temp. and cooler Asia, and N. Africa.

2200-3100 m

Fl. Per.: April-August.

Waste places, roadsides, fields, woodlands, river banks. Xinjiang, Xizang [Afghanistan, India, Kashmir, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Nepal, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan; native to SW Asia and Europe; naturalized elsewhere].

Arabis petiolata Marschall von Bieberstein, Fl. Taur.-Caucas. 2: 126. 1808; Alliaria officinalis Andrzejowski ex Marschall von Bieberstein; Erysimum alliaria Linnaeus; Sisymbrium alliaria (Linnaeus) Scopoli.