Ontario Weeds: Hedge mustard

Table of Contents

1. Name
2. Other Names
3. Family
4. General Description
   • Photos and Pictures
5. Stems and Roots
6. Leaves
7. Flowers and Fruit
8. Habitat
9. Similar Species
10. Related Links

Name: Hedge mustard, Sisymbrium officinale (L.) Scop.,

Other Names: sisymbre officinal, herbe au chantre

Family: Mustard Family (Cruciferae)

General Description: Annual or winter annual, reproducing only by seed.

Hedge mustard. A. Base of plant.

Hedge mustard. B. Flowering branch

Stems & Roots: Stems erect, 30-90cm (1-3ft) high, branched.

Leaves: Rosette leaves with a definite stalk, divided into several, irregularly toothed, narrow segments on each side and 1 larger angular or roundish terminal segment, middle and upper leaves smaller, short-stalked or stalkless, less divided or with no lobes along the side, alternate (1 per node), the whole plant often with a gray-green appearance.

Flowers & Fruit: Flowers resembling but much smaller than Wild mustard, bright yellow, about 3mm (1/8in.) wide, in tight clusters at tips of stems and branches; stalks of seedpods very short (1.5mm, 1/16in.), at first thin, becoming thicker with age; seedpods closely pressed to the stem, 1-1.5cm (2/5-3/5in.) long, about 1.5mm (1/16in.) wide at the base and tapering towards the slender, seedless beak (d) at the tip, smooth or usually somewhat short-hairy; seeds angular, grayish-brown. Flowers from June to August.

Habitat: Hedge mustard occurs throughout southern Ontario, and in a few localities in the north and northwest, being most common in waste places, gardens and edges of fields and only occasionally appearing as a weed in grainfields.

Similar Species: It is distinguished by the large terminal segment of the divided leaf, short tapering pods on very short stalks closely pressed to the stem, and the plant frequently having a gray-green appearance.

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Related Links

... on general Weed topics
... on weed identification, order OMAFRA Publication 505: Ontario Weeds
... on weed control, order OMAFRA Publication 75: Guide To Weed Control

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