Eruca sativa
Mill. RocketStems erect, 10–60 cm high, glabrous or with soft or bristly hairs, fetid when crushed. Lower leaves petiolate, pinnate or pinnately lobed, lateral lobes 2–5 pairs, terminal lobe large and more or less ovate, margins usually irregularly toothed; upper leaves less divided, sessile or shortly stalked. Sepals 8–12 mm long, erect, deciduous; petals 12–22 mm long. Fruit erect, 1–4 cm long (including beak), 3–6 mm wide; valves little constricted between seeds; beak 5–10 mm long, flattened, narrowly to broadly triangular; pedicel 2–8 mm long; seeds 1–3 mm long, yellow- or red-brown. Flowers summer–autumn.
Naturalised in WA, SA, NSW, Tas. Native to northern Africa, Eurasia. In Victoria it has not been collected since 1941, prior to which it had been found near Kerang, Dimboola and Werribee. As a weed of cultivated and disturbed soil it may not be truly naturalised in Victoria.
The leaves and seeds are edible. It is sometimes cultivated as a salad vegetable or animal feed, or for seed-oil.
Sinapis alba resembles E. vesicaria subsp. sativa but has spreading sepals and only a single row of seeds per locule. Eruca vesicaria subsp. vesicaria has not been reported from Australia, and has sepals which are persistent at least until the fruits ripen.
Entwisle, T.J. (1996). Brassicaceae. In: Walsh, N.G.; Entwisle, T.J., Flora of Victoria Vol. 3, Dicotyledons Winteraceae to Myrtaceae, pp. 399–459. Inkata Press, Melbourne.
Spinning
