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Treacle Mustard

Treacle Mustard

Erysimum cheiranthoides

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How common: Common

Alien species

Treacle Mustard is a slender yellow-flowered mustard that grows as an annual, or sometimes as a biennial. It is a common weed of disturbed ground across much of the temperate Northern Hemisphere, especially in fields, gardens, roadsides and waste places.

Did you know?

  • It has two subspecies: a usually annual, smaller weed and a taller form that can be biennial.
  • The flower cluster opens from the bottom upward, leaving a long string of narrow pods.

About the species

Identification

Slender, upright plant, usually 20–100 cm tall (sometimes taller), with a stiff, ridged stem and fine hairs. Leaves are narrow and mostly smooth-edged, similar from base to top and often pointing upward. The tip carries a long, leafless cluster of tiny pale yellow four-petalled flowers. As it ripens, many long, thin, four-angled pods 2–3 cm long appear, each on a thin stalk that sticks out. The very small pale flowers plus the long outward-pointing pods separate it from other yellow mustards with larger flowers and shorter pods. Flowers in Finland from June to August.

Plant group

Herbaceous plants

Habitat

yards and roadsides

Flowering

Jun–Aug

About the habitat

Grows on bare or disturbed soil: arable fields, gardens, fallows, roadsides and vacant lots. Common throughout Finland except in northern Lapland, where it is rare.

Sources

Photo: Krzysztof Ziarnek, Kenraiz, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Erysimum cheiranthoides kz21.jpg

Text: Pinkka: Verso- ja leviäintunnistus - Kaikki leviäimet, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.38377

Text: Pinkka: Verso- ja leviäintunnistus - Kaikki versot, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.38377

Text: Pinkka: Laaja maatalouslajintuntemus 4 op - Koppisiemeniset, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.38377

Text: Pinkka (Luomus), CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.38377

Text: Wikipedia (Finnish), CC BY-SA 4.0 https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peltoukonnauris

See also