Ward's-weed

Carrichtera annua is a small erect annual herb of the Brassicaceae family growing 5-40 cm tall from a slender taproot. Stems are usually branched from the base, slender, stiffly hairy with short spreading bristles throughout. Leaves are alternate, deeply two- to three-pinnatisect with narrow linear ultimate segments giving the foliage a fern-like appearance, 2-8 cm long, sparsely hairy and somewhat fleshy. The inflorescence is an elongating raceme of small pale yellow flowers with darker (often purplish) veining, the open flowers usually overtopping the immature fruits. Sepals are four, oblong, hairy; petals are four, narrowly obovate, 4-7 mm long, often becoming whitish with age. The fruit is highly distinctive: a short pendulous silique 5-10 mm long bearing a flattened, dorsally compressed, lyrate to spoon-shaped upper segment (the persistent valves and beak together) that overhangs the small two-valved lower seed-bearing portion, the whole resembling a tiny ladle or shovel. Each silique contains two or three globose to slightly compressed brown seeds. Native to dry, sunny, sandy or stony ground throughout the Mediterranean basin, the Middle East and North Africa, and an aggressive weed in semi-arid pastoral landscapes of Australia.