Synonyms: Other names: small tumbleweed mustard Nomenclature: loeselii = named after Loese Nativity / Invasiveness: introduced plant, weed
Medicinal plant
No edibility data
Description
General: plant height: 40-120 cm tall. Growth habit: erect annual, rather freely branched, from taproot. Stems: with long, stiff, simple hairs, spreading to backward-pointed, from sparsely to more densely hairy below to hairless above.
Leaves: alternate and in basal rosette, short-stalked, the lower ones up to 15 cm long, broadly triangular- to lance-shaped, with sharp, backward-pointed lobes, usually with a large, sharply pointed, irregularly toothed, end lobe.
Flowers: pale lemon yellow, in elongated clusters on branches, up to 4 dm long in fruit, with 4 petals 6-8 mm long and lance-shaped sepals about 3.5 mm long.
June-August.
Fruits: pods linear, 20-35 mm long and 0.7 mm thick, cylindrical, mostly ascending, straight or slightly upward-curved. Stalks thinner than pods, somewhat ascending, 7-20 mm long. Valves are rather prominently 3-nerved. Seeds in 1 row, about 0.7 mm long, not slimy when wet.
Distribution
Common weed on disturbed ground in some parts of MT. Introduced from Europe, now spread across N. America.
Medicinal Uses
The leaves and flowers of small tumblemustard have been used in the treatment of scurvy and scrofula.
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