Hedge Mustard (Sisymbrium officinale)

Hedge Mustard (Sisymbrium officinale). Frome, 3 August 2019.

Hedge Mustard (Sw: Vägsenap - Sisymbrium officinale)

So far as I'm aware every plant in the Brassicaceae is more or less edible.

Despite its common name in English (and Swedish), this species isn't in the same genus as any of the three species that are used to make my favourite condiment (Sinapis Alba, Brassica juncea, Brassica nigra).

Nor is it in the same genus as the rocket normally eaten in salads (Eruca sativa). But it has been suspected as being the "English rocket" with yellow flowers referred to by some early botanists. The fresh leaves are certainly very good eating.

It's native to Europe and very common; also introduced in the eastern USA.

After six months of unobtrusive greening it suddenly rockets forth in May (though "rocket" in that sense has no etymological connection with the salad rocket). It now looks like a completely different plant.

 The flowers are very small but the ever-elongating sickle-shaped flower shoots with appressed fruits are unmistakable.

The winter/spring leaves have quite a distinctive shape: Runcinate with a truncate terminal lobe, if I'm using the terms correctly. The leaves that appear in the upper storey when flowering begins have a very different shape:their terminal lobes are even pointed.

Anyway, here's how the plants grow into these impressive tangles of high summer. 

12 November: Hedge Mustard (Sisymbrium officinale).

13 November: Hedge Mustard (Sisymbrium officinale).

17 November: Hedge Mustard (Sisymbrium officinale).

25 November: Hedge Mustard (Sisymbrium officinale).

27 December: Hedge Mustard (Sisymbrium officinale).

12 February:  Hedge Mustard (Sisymbrium officinale).

10 April: Hedge Mustard (Sisymbrium officinale).

13 April: Hedge Mustard (Sisymbrium officinale).

22 April: Hedge Mustard (Sisymbrium officinale).

28 April: Hedge Mustard (Sisymbrium officinale).

28 April: Hedge Mustard (Sisymbrium officinale).

4 May: Hedge Mustard (Sisymbrium officinale).

4 May: Hedge Mustard (Sisymbrium officinale).

13 May: Hedge Mustard (Sisymbrium officinale).

20 May: Hedge Mustard (Sisymbrium officinale).

26 May: Hedge Mustard (Sisymbrium officinale).

26 May: Hedge Mustard (Sisymbrium officinale).

26 May: Hedge Mustard (Sisymbrium officinale).

26 May: Hedge Mustard (Sisymbrium officinale).

14 June: Hedge Mustard (Sisymbrium officinale).

30 June: Hedge Mustard (Sisymbrium officinale).

4 July. At this time of year it's not unusual to find scraps of Hedge Mustard (Sisymbrium officinale) spreading by the tumbleweed method. 

6 July. Hedge Mustard (Sisymbrium officinale). contributing to the scruffiness of high summer.

7 July. A single stem of Hedge Mustard (Sisymbrium officinale).

Most often, you see those elongating fruits spreading like a mop-head on a single stem. 

But it's also pretty common to see a closely-packed forest of stems, like in the photo below. 

According to the literature Hedge Mustard is always a biennial or annual, and the plant generally has that sort of annual-like lifestyle, based on producing loads of seed and an unfailing ability to colonize marginal land. 

But when you see clumps like the one below, wouldn't you think it was perennation?

10 July. A clump of Hedge Mustard (Sisymbrium officinale).

That's what I thought, anyway. The plants are very difficult to uproot, which only added to my suspicions. 

But then I unexpectedly got a chance to disinter one of these clumps (it was the one shown in its pomp in the photo from 14 June). It was growing on the estate's unofficial dumping ground, in soil that was dry and friable by the end of the long summer of 2026. For once the stems pulled out cleanly. 

And of course the literature is quite correct. Each of the thirty stems was a separate plant with its own root system, consisting mainly of a long tap-root. So it seems these plants thrive in very close proximity. Stronger together, is their motto. They encourage close neighbours instead of telling them to bide their time.

23 August. Six uprooted stems of Hedge Mustard (Sisymbrium officinale). from a clump of about thirty. 

21 August

There's a bit of a "second wave" in around August, which is what these two photos show. These annual plants are generally small and have a speeded-up life-cycle, so you can see basal leaves, flowers and fruit all at the same time.

8 August