Russian Rocket

Description

densely hairy, with simple hairs; stem erect, slightly branched; leaves pinnati-partite, with ovate obtuse and toothed lobes; pods turned up, terete, densely covered with short bristles, thrice as long as the pedicel; seeds in two rows. A foot high. Lower leaves petiolate, crowded, 2�4 inches long, with 7�9 lobes at each side, the lower lobes sub-distant, the upper close, the middle 3�5 lines long, toothed; stem leaves gradually smaller. Fruiting racemes, 3�4 inches long; pedicels very hairy. Sepals a line long. Claw of petals as long as the calyx, lamina oval. Pods 6�8 lines long, 3/4 line wide; valves 3 nerved; style very short; stigma thick, bilobed. Seeds minute, with incumbent cotyledons, not �accumbent,� as Turcz. describes them. Allied to S. Burchellii and S. Gariepinum, from both which it differs in the longer leaves, and especially in the shorter, densely setose pods.