White rocket

Diplotaxis erucoides is an erect annual or short-lived perennial herb of the cabbage family growing 20-60 cm tall with leafy, somewhat hairy stems branching from the base. Leaves are mainly cauline, oblanceolate to pinnatifid in outline, 5-15 cm long, with rounded or coarsely toothed lobes, slightly fleshy in texture, and emit a pungent mustard-like odour when crushed. Inflorescences are elongating terminal racemes of four-petalled flowers 8-15 mm across; petals are white, sometimes pinkish or violet-veined, narrowly clawed and obovate. Fruits are erect to ascending narrow siliques 20-45 mm long borne on short slender pedicels, slightly compressed and tipped by a short conical beak; seeds are arranged in two distinct rows in each loculus. A common weed of cultivated land, vineyards, fallows, roadsides, and waste places across the Mediterranean basin and adjacent regions, it flowers virtually throughout the year, peaking in late winter and spring.