''Rhamphospermum arvense'', (syns. ''Brassica arvensis'' and ''Sinapis arvensis'') the charlock mustard, field mustard, wild mustard, or just charlock, is an
annual or winter annual plant in the family
Brassicaceae
Brassicaceae () or (the older but equally valid) Cruciferae () is a medium-sized and economically important Family (biology), family of flowering plants commonly known as the mustards, the crucifers, or the cabbage family. Most are herbaceous pla ...
.
It is found in the fields of North Africa, Asia, Europe, and some other areas where it has been transported and naturalized. ''
Pieris rapae'', the small white butterfly, and ''
Pieris napi'', the green veined white butterfly, are significant consumers of charlock during their
larva
A larva (; : larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into their next life stage. Animals with indirect development such as insects, some arachnids, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase ...
l stages.
Description

''Rhamphospermum arvense'' reaches on average in height, but under optimal conditions can exceed one metre. The stems are erect, branched and striated, with coarse spreading hairs especially near the base.
The leaves are
petiolate (stalked) with a length of . The basal leaves are oblong, oval, lanceolate, lyrate,
pinnatifid to
dentate, long, wide. The cauline leaves are much reduced and are short petiolate to sessile but not auriculate-clasping. It blooms from May to September, or May to August, in the UK.
The inflorescence is a
raceme
A raceme () or racemoid is an unbranched, indeterminate growth, indeterminate type of inflorescence bearing flowers having short floral stalks along the shoots that bear the flowers. The oldest flowers grow close to the base and new flowers are ...
made up of yellow flowers having four petals with spreading sepals.
The fruit is a
silique
A silique or siliqua (plural ''siliques'' or ''siliquae'') is a type of fruit (seed capsule) having two fused carpels with the length being more than three times the width. When the length is less than three times the width of the dried fruit ...
3–5 cm long with a beak 1–2 cm long that is flattened-quadrangular. The valves of the silique are glabrous or rarely bristly, three to five nerved. The seeds are dark red or brown,
[ smooth 1-1.5 mm in diameter.
]
Phytochemistry
It contains chemicals of the class glucosinolates
Glucosinolates are natural components of many pungent plants such as mustard, cabbage, and horseradish. The pungency of those plants is due to mustard oils produced from glucosinolates when the plant material is chewed, cut, or otherwise dama ...
, including sinalbin. The seeds contain a plant hormone, gibberellic acid, which effects the dormancy
Dormancy is a period in an organism's Biological life cycle, life cycle when growth, development, and (in animals) physical activity are temporarily stopped. This minimizes metabolism, metabolic activity and therefore helps an organism to conserv ...
of the seeds.
Taxonomy
It was formally described by the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus
Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...
in his seminal publication 'Species Plantarum
' (Latin for "The Species of Plants") is a book by Carl Linnaeus, originally published in 1753, which lists every species of plant known at the time, classified into genus, genera. It is the first work to consistently apply binomial nomenclature ...
' on page 668 in 1753.
It is commonly known as charlock mustard, field mustard, wild mustard, or charlock.
Synonyms
Etymology
The former generic name ''Sinapis'' derives from the Greek word ''sinapi'' meaning 'mustard' and was the old name used by Theophrastus
Theophrastus (; ; c. 371 – c. 287 BC) was an ancient Greek Philosophy, philosopher and Natural history, naturalist. A native of Eresos in Lesbos, he was Aristotle's close colleague and successor as head of the Lyceum (classical), Lyceum, the ...
for any mustard. The specific epithet ''arvense'' is a Latin adjective meaning 'from/of the field'.
Distribution
A native of the Mediterranean basin, from temperate regions of North Africa, Europe and parts of Asia. It has also become naturalised throughout much of North America, South America, Australia, Japan and South Africa.
Range
It is found in North Africa, within Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia. Within Asia, it is found in Arabian Peninsula
The Arabian Peninsula (, , or , , ) or Arabia, is a peninsula in West Asia, situated north-east of Africa on the Arabian plate. At , comparable in size to India, the Arabian Peninsula is the largest peninsula in the world.
Geographically, the ...
(in Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates), Armenia, Azerbaijan, the Caucasus
The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region spanning Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is situated between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, comprising parts of Southern Russia, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. The Caucasus Mountains, i ...
, China, Georgia, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Siberia
Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...
, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. It is also found in tropical Pakistan. In eastern Europe, it is found within Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova and Ukraine. In middle Europe, it is in Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia and Switzerland. In northern Europe, in Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom. In southeastern Europe, within Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Italy, Montenegro, North Macedonia
North Macedonia, officially the Republic of North Macedonia, is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe. It shares land borders with Greece to the south, Albania to the west, Bulgaria to the east, Kosovo to the northwest and Serbia to the n ...
, Romania, Serbia and Slovenia. Also in southwestern Europe, it is found in France, Portugal and Spain.
Habitat
It grows in the plains and mountains, in pastures, fields, roadsides, waste places (such as railways, tips, and waste ground), and ruins, but mainly in cultivated places.[ It prefers calcareous soils in sunny places, at an altitude of above sea level.
]
Ecology
The flowers are pollinated
Pollination is the transfer of pollen from an anther of a plant to the stigma of a plant, later enabling fertilisation and the production of seeds. Pollinating agents can be animals such as insects, for example bees, beetles or butterflies; bird ...
by various bees like '' Andrena agilissima'' and flies (entomophily
Entomophily or insect pollination is a form of pollination whereby pollen of plants, especially but not only of flowering plants, is distributed by insects. Flowers pollinated by insects typically advertise themselves with bright colours, some ...
). ''Rhamphospermum arvense'' is the host plant of the caterpillar
Caterpillars ( ) are the larval stage of members of the order Lepidoptera (the insect order comprising butterflies and moths).
As with most common names, the application of the word is arbitrary, since the larvae of sawflies (suborder ...
s of some Lepidoptera
Lepidoptera ( ) or lepidopterans is an order (biology), order of winged insects which includes butterflies and moths. About 180,000 species of the Lepidoptera have been described, representing 10% of the total described species of living organ ...
, such as the small white, '' Pieris rapae''. The seeds are toxic to most animals, except birds, and can cause gastrointestinal
The gastrointestinal tract (GI tract, digestive tract, alimentary canal) is the tract or passageway of the digestive system that leads from the mouth to the anus. The tract is the largest of the body's systems, after the cardiovascular system. ...
problems, especially if consumed in large quantities.
It is a highly invasive species
An invasive species is an introduced species that harms its new environment. Invasive species adversely affect habitats and bioregions, causing ecological, environmental, and/or economic damage. The term can also be used for native spec ...
in states such as California.
Uses
The leaves of wild mustard are edible at the juvenile stage of the plant; they are usually boiled, such as in 18th century, in Dublin
Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...
, where it was sold in the streets.[ During the Great Famine of Ireland, wild mustard was a common ]famine food
A famine food or poverty food is any inexpensive or ready available food used to nourish people in times of hunger and starvation, whether caused by extreme poverty, such as during economic depression or war, or by natural disasters such as dro ...
, even though it often caused stomach upset. Once the seeds are ground, they produce a kind of mustard
Mustard may refer to:
Food and plants
* Mustard (condiment), a paste or sauce made from mustard seeds used as a condiment
* Mustard plant, one of several plants, having seeds that are used for the condiment
** Mustard seed, small, round seeds of ...
.
A type of oil can be extracted from the seed which has been used for lubricating machinery.
As ruminant feed
Grazing wild mustard at growing and flowering stages is harmless for cattle and sheep. Poisoning can occur in the same animals when fed with older seed-bearing plants. This can occur when wild mustard grows as a weed in green-fed rapeseed
Rapeseed (''Brassica napus'' subsp. ''napus''), also known as rape and oilseed rape and canola, is a bright-yellow flowering member of the family Brassicaceae (mustard or cabbage family), cultivated mainly for its oil-rich seed, which naturall ...
or cereals. Accidental consumption of wild mustard oil can also be the cause of reported intoxications.
Hôteur rabrouxhe efant.jpg, plant higher than 1 meter
Gades ezès snés Djebel Xheder.jpg, goats grazing in mountain pasture with many wild mustards
Tchamp plin d' siné dilé Feddala.jpg, fallow dominated by wild mustard
Siné grinnes mierplante.jpg, individual mature plant
Siné grinnes bohêye.jpg, potentially toxic mature plants
See also
*''Sinapis alba
White mustard (''Sinapis alba''), also called yellow mustard, is an annual plant of the cabbage family. It is sometimes also referred to as ''Brassica alba'' or ''B. hirta''. It probably originated in the Mediterranean region, but is now ...
'', known as "yellow mustard" or "white mustard"
References
Environmental Library of the US Army Corps Engineers
*Conti F., Abbate G., Alessandrini A., Blasi C., 2005. An annotated checklist of the Italian vascular flora, Palombi Editore
*Pignatti S. - Flora d'Italia – Edagricole – 1982. Vol. I, pag. 473
{{Taxonbar, from1=Q115124584, from2=Q27986, from3=Q38547466
arvense
Flora of North Africa
Flora of temperate Asia
Flora of Europe
Plants described in 1822