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African Mustard
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African Mustard
ative Photo: Gurcharan Singh
Common name: African Mustard
Botanical name: Malcolmia africana    Family: Brassicaceae (Mustard family)
Synonyms: Strigosella africana, Malcolmia laxa, Crucifera africana

African Mustard is a nearly erect annual herb covered with branched hairs. Basal leaves soon wither away, stem leaves are elliptic-oblong to oblanceolate, 2-6 cm long, entire or dentate, petiolate, uppermost smaller and nearly stalkless. Flowers are pink or purple, rarely white on barely up to 3 mm long stalks thickened in fruit, forming an elonated raceme with straight or zigzag axis. Petals are 6-10 mm long; seed-pods linear, 4-angled, covered with branched trichomes. African Mustard is native to S. Europe, N. Africa, most of Asia, and China. It is locally common in Kashmir in dry wastelands, weed of cultivation.

Identification credit: Gurcharan Singh
Photographed in Srinagar, Kashmir.
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