Mutarda nigra

(L.) Bernh. (1800)

This name is accepted

Kingdom: Viridiplantae Phylum: Magnoliophyta Class/Clade: Eudicot-Rosids Order: Brassicales Family: Brassicaceae Genus: Mutarda

black mustard, makeke, mākeke

Description

Key Characters:

Growth Form: Erect annual herbs 5–25 dm tall, branched above, with watery and usually pungent sap.

Stems: Stems sparsely hirsute, especially on lower parts of stem, or subglabrous.

Roots:

Leaves: Leaves simple. Alternate or rarely opposite. Lower blades deeply pinnatified, with a large terminal lobe and a few small lateral ones, 10–20 cm long, 3–9 cm wide. cauline leaves gradually reduced. Cauline leaves sessile, not clasping the stem. Stipules absent.

Flowers: Flowers in usually bractless, in elongate, terminal racemes. Flowers bisexual (perfect), actinomorphic or rarely slightly irregular; showy. Calyx of 4 sepals, ascending or spreading, deciduous, erect, usually oblong, inner ones ± gibbous at base. Corolla of 4 petals, rarely absent, yellow, 7–8 mm long, long–clawed. Stamens (2–4)6(–16), tetradynamous, the inner 4 usually in pairs, sometimes connate at base in pairs; anthers dithecal, opening by longitudinal slits. Ovary superior, 2(4?)-carpellate, usually 2-celled by means of a false, but usually complete septum, rarely 1-celled, sessile or rarely stipitate; ovules 1 to numerous, borne on parietal placentas on replum margin at periphery of ovary wall, campylotropous or occasionally anatropous; style 1 or occasionally absent; stigma truncate or 2-lobed.

Fruit: Capsules divided into 2 cells by the usually thin and membranous septum; elongate (at least 3 times as long as wide) and referred to as a silique. fruit an elongate; linear silique; often torulose; terete (cylindrical) or 4–angled; with a stout; indehiscent; flat or conical; often 1–seeded beak. Siliques erect; appressed to the stem; 1–2 cm long; the beak sterile; 1–4 mm long. Seeds 1 to numerous; often becoming mucilaginous when wet; endosperm essentially absent. Seeds dark reddish brown; globose; 1–1.3 mm in diameter; the surface finely reticulate.

Ploidy: 2n = 16; 32

Habitat: Naturalized in disturbed areas; especially along roadsides and in pastures.

Elevation Range:

Historical Distribution

Synonyms (40)

Uses and Culture

USES

  • Yes

Natural History

Statewide Status

Naturalized

Island Status

Kuaihelani (Midway Atoll) Naturalized
O'ahu Naturalized
Maui Naturalized
Hawai'i Naturalized

Dispersal Agents


Pollinators

Bibliography

Name Published In: Syst. Verz. Erf.: 197 (1800)

Other References

Wagner et al. 1990:400 (no NWHI records, O, M, H); Starr et al. 2003:25 (Mi)

Occurrences

SNo. Scientific Name Scientific Name Authorship Locality Habitat Basis of Record Recorded By Record Number Island Source Date