Black Mustard and Bastard Cabbage - Brassicas on the Border

bastard cabbage
Bastard Cabbage Rapistrum rugosum  Photo: Bob Ellis

On a blustery June day near Redenhall, no more than four hundred metres from the Suffolk border the oilseed rape was overtopped by a mass of Black Mustard, Brassica nigra, which stretched along the edge of the crop for a good 50 metres.

black mustard
Black Mustard Brassica nigra  Photo: Bob Ellis

A little further down into the Waveney valley, the edge of the same crop was dominated by a dense strip Bastard Cabbage, Rapistrum rugosum. Although these two members of the cabbage family might be confused from a distance when in flower, the fruits of each species are quite distinctive

Bob Ellis
14.06.2018