Erysimum repandum L.

Sometimes used as fodder for sheep.

Annual, (5-) 15-30 (-60) cm tall, erect, branched mostly from below, appres¬sedly hairy with 2-3-partite hairs; upper branches often spreading. Leaves elliptic-oblong, narrowly oblanceolate to linear, 10-60 (-100) mm long, 2-10 mm broad, lower stalked, upper sessile, sinuate-dentate to almost entire. Racemes 15-30-flowered, rarely with 1-2 bracts below or leafy below (without having flowers in leaf axils), up to 30 cm long in fruit. Flowers small, c. 5 mm across, yellow; pedicels usually short, up to 4 mm long in fruit, thickened, often horizontally spreading. Sepals c. 4 mm long. Petals c. 7 mm long, 2 mm broad. Stamens c. 4: 5 mm long; anthers c. 0.7 mm long. Siliquae (20-) 30-70 (-90) mm long, 1-1.5 mm broad, subcylindrical, linear-oblong, appressedly hairy; valves with a mid-rib; stigma depressed, bilobed, subsessile; seeds c. 1 mm long, oblong-ellipsoid.

Herbs annual, (4-)15-45(-70) cm tall. Trichomes malpighiaceous, mixed with fewer 3-forked ones. Stems erect, simple or branched at base. Basal and lowermost cauline leaves subrosulate, often withered by fruiting; petiole (0.3-)0.5-2(-3) cm; leaf blade linear, narrowly oblanceolate, elliptic, or oblong, flat, (1-)2-8(-11) cm × (2-)5-10(-15) mm, base attenuate, margin sinuate, coarsely dentate, denticulate, or repand, apex acute. Upper leaves sessile, usually smaller than basal, entire or denticulate. Racemes corymbose, densely flowered, ebracteate, elongated considerably in fruit. Fruiting pedicels divaricate, 2-4 mm, stout, about as wide as fruit. Sepals linear-oblong, 4-6 × 0.7-1 mm. Petals yellow, narrowly spatulate, 6-8 × 1.5-2 mm, apex rounded; claw subequaling sepals. Filaments yellow, 4-6 mm; anthers linear, 0.8-1.3 mm. Ovules (40-)50-80(-90) per ovary. Fruit narrowly linear, 4-angled, (2-)3-8(-10) cm × 1.5-2 mm, somewhat torulose, widely spreading or divaricate-ascending, straight or curved upward; valves with a distinct midvein, outside with malpighiaceous and fewer 3-forked trichomes on the outside, inside pubescent; style stout, 1-4 mm, cylindric or subclavate, sparsely pubescent; stigma slightly 2-lobed. Seeds oblong, 1.1-1.5 × 0.6-0.7 mm. Fl. Apr-Jul, fr. May-Sep. 2n = 14.

Distribution: Europe and most of Asia; probably introduced in America.

Liaoning, Xinjiang [Afghanistan, Kashmir, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan; N Africa, SW Asia, Europe].

Fl. Per.: April-June.

Disturbed sites, roadsides, fields, waste places, pastures; 200-1400 m.

Erysimum rigidum de Candolle.